Aeonian
by XxXBeautifulXxXDreamerXxX
Summary: Scarlet McCall is one of the only humans left in her circle of friends. She and Scott are twins, so she's been by his side since the first day he was bitten. Now it seems like nature is going against all of them and no one can figure out why. Well, no one it seems, except for Stiles Stilinkski, the resident genius... and Scarlet's crush?
1. Chapter 1

**I'm in the process of rewriting this story to make it flow better. Thank you for reading :)**

**I own nothing but Scarlet and Lily. **

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><p>I let out yet another sigh from the backseat of Stiles' Jeep as we made our way to the nearest tattoo place. Scott had gotten mom's permission to get a freakin' tattoo at age seventeen, yet I had to wait until I was sixteen to get my bellybutton pierced instead of fourteen when I wanted. I thought it was ridiculous! Getting a bellybutton piercing was so much less serious than a getting a tattoo!<p>

"Have I said that this is totally unfair?" I asked for the millionth time in the past five minutes. "Why are you allowed to get a tattoo?"

Stiles and Scott both ignored me and continued their conversation like I was there. I was used to this after all the years we'd been friends. Stiles Stilinski had been my twin brother Scott's best friend since kindergarten. So, by association, he was my best friend as well.

"Scarlet _did_ have to wait until she was sixteen to get her bellybutton pierced instead fourteen when she originally wanted it…" Lily piped up from her spot beside me. "It is a _little_ unfair."

Lily was my Stiles because she and I had been best friends since Kindergarten, too. She knew about everything happening in Beacon Hills from werewolves and crazy hunters to homicidal lizards. Everyone had to have someone that they could talk to about what was happening in their life. Stiles was Scott's best friend first, I couldn't just steal him away whenever I wanted to gab about craziness.

They just ignored Lily's statement too as Scott parked in the lot outside the tattoo parlor. I made sure my dress was covering my butt before I moved away from the Jeep. I walked into the shop just behind Stiles, leafing through the tattoo books as Scott took a seat in the chair.

"What about this one?" Stiles asked, showing Scott a picture of a lizard man that looked a little too much like a Kanima and waggled his eyebrows.

Lily and I both laughed at him, but Scott just rolled his eyes. Stiles winked over at me before he went back to looking through the book. His lips were pulled up into a small smile that made one grow on mine before I could stop it.

"At least that tattoo has some character, you just want two black bands! That's so boring," Lily exclaimed from her spot by the window. "Why not go with something more interesting?"

"I don't know why I want it, I just know that I do. It's sort of a rite of passage," he tried to explain to us. "It symbolizes something to me."

When the tattoo artist spoke for the first time, it made me jump. I hadn't even heard him come up to us. "Tattoos have been around for thousands of years. The word for tattoo in Tahitian actually means 'to leave a mark.'"

Scott rolled up the sleeve of his shirt and the man set to work on the tattoo after he dropped that wisdom bomb on us. I knew better than to watch Scott getting his tattoo, but it seemed like Stiles was not. I heard a thump and turned around to see that he had fainted when he looked too closely at what was happening.

He was SUCH a lightweight!

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><p>We all made our way back to the Jeep after Scott's tattoo was finished. Stiles had an icepack pressed to the side of his head and Scott had a bandage wrapped around his upper arm. My boys were accident prone to the extreme.<p>

"It kind of burns," Scott said, touching the bandage gingerly with the tips of his fingers.

"I'd say so. You did just get a ton of ink jammed under your skin with a needle," I told him, pushing my head up into the space between the seats. ""That's going to burn, bro."

"No! I don't think it's supposed to hurt this bad!" he roared as his eyes flashed gold and he tore the bandage off of his arm despite Stiles begging him not to.

The thick black lines were barely left on his skin. Right after he tore the bandage off, they completely healed up. I couldn't help but stare at it in total shock. I'd seen some crazy things, but that had to be one of the craziest.

"Thank god! I hated that thing," Stiles exhaled.

"Finally your werewolfitude is working in my favor! Your super healing isn't going to let you keep a tattoo!" I shouted, pumping my fist in the air. "That is karma being in my corner! That's amazing!"

Scott huffed and crossed his arms over his chest as he pouted in the passenger seat. Stiles was still smiling when he started the Jeep and started heading towards mine and Scott's house. We stopped at a red light when Lily pointed at the car next to us that had Lydia and Allison inside of it.

"So you and Allison haven't talked all summer?" Stiles asked Scott, completely unaware that she was in the car beside ours.

"Nah, we agreed to give each other the summer…no texts, no calls," Scott agreed, staring straight out the windshield.

"So you don't think she's coming back to school with us this year?" Lily asked, trying to act like she didn't see anything.

"Would you if you went through all the stuff that she did last year? I'm sure this town just reminds her of it all," Scott told her, still not looking away from the windshield.

"I'm sure she's coming back," I said, gesturing with my head to them when Stiles' eyes met mine. "Don't you think so, Stiles?"

When he saw what I saw, his lips pulled up into a big smile. "Scar's right, I'm like 99.9% sure that she's coming back to Beacon Hills. Like, I would place all the money I have on it."

Scott caught on to what he was saying and turned his head to see what we all saw. He yelped when he saw the girls and hit Stiles' shoulder until he accelerated forward. Lydia seemed to jar out of her trance and drove forward, too.

"Stiles! What are you doing?!" Scott shouted at him, making the boy swerve on the road. "It looks like you're following them!"

"Dude, what do you want me to do? There aren't any turns and I can't stop driving!" Stiles shouted back, making me flinch.

Despite what he said, Stiles stomped on the break and stopped the Jeep in the middle of the street. It was a good thing I threw out my hand or I would've smashed my face against the back of Stiles' seat. I let out a frustrated groan and heard Lily echo it, the boys were so stupid!

Neither of them knew that I'd talked to Allison over the summer to see how she was doing. She was very much still interested in Scott, she was just trying to find some sort of closure. She wanted time on her own to work through everything and I didn't blame her.

"They stopped in front of us! What does that mean?" Scott shouted again, running a hand through his hair.

I saw that he was right, their car was a couple feet ahead of us and at a total standstill. The Jeep's headlights illuminated the car enough that I could see both of them talking quickly and with their hands. The sudden smashing of the animal through their windshield scared me so much that I screamed.

I pushed the others out of the way and ran as fast as I could up to Lydia and Allison. I made sure the two of them were okay, but was quickly moved away when Scott placed his hands on Allison's shoulders and Stiles wrapped his arm around Lydia's shoulder.

I tried to ignore the uncomfortable twinge in my stomach that that caused and moved to stand by Lily. I couldn't hold in my gasp when I saw how big the deer was, still twitching slightly before it fell completely limp. Her windshield was completely smashed to bits now.

Scott was standing beside the car with his hand pressed against the deer's side. "It was scared. Actually…terrified."

"I saw its eyes right before it hit us and it looked crazy," Lydia said, her voice shaking as she remembered.

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><p>It took a little bit to calm everyone down, but after we did we all left. The ride back home was really quiet. Scott was lost in thought about Allison and Stiles thinking about Lydia I was sure, so that meant Lily and me were alone in the backseat with the silence.<p>

"Do you want to stay tonight" I asked her, turning my body as much as I could to face her in the cramped seat. Then louder I said, "I'm sure Stiles can give us a ride on the first day. I mean, I can't have helmet hair. Won't you?"

His brown eyes met mine in the rearview mirror and I saw his lips pull up into a snarky smile. "Of course, I'm the resident chauffer, right?"

"Never mind, asshole," I told him, following Scott out of the car and stomping into the house with Lily on my heel.

"I drove here, Scar. It's okay," she reassured me as soon as we were in my room, but I was already rolled up into a rant.

"He is literally the world's biggest asshole! I can't believe he's Scott's best friend!" I shouted, throwing my hands around.

"You know you're just mad that he was all up in Lydia's grill earlier. He wasn't any more of an ass tonight than he ever is," Lily told me as she took off her boots.

I just flipped her off as I grabbed my pajamas before tossing another pair at Lily. I was dressed and she was just pulling her top down when Scott burst into the room. She shrieked and made Scott look over, thankfully seeing nothing.

"I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, covering his eyes. Then he looked at me and said, "Stiles didn't mean anything. He was just kidding, he told me to tell you that he'd be here to get both of you in the morning."

"I don't care, Lily drove here earlier," I told him as I twisted my hair into a bun on top of my head. "Now if you don't mind, Lily and I need to go to bed. It's getting late and we need our beauty sleep for the first day of school!"

Scott ignored my words and wrapped his arms around me. "I know you've got a thing for Stiles and it hurt to see him comfort Lydia. I could hear your heartbeat stutter back on the road."

I sagged against his chest and returned his tight hug with my arms around his waist. "He's still an asshole."

Scott laughed as he let me go and left my room, pulling my door shut behind him.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading. Review maybe?<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**This is still a rewrite, I hope it's good because I didn't really edit it too much. The first episode is really split up because it's before I started making each chapter one episode. I'm sorry it's so choppy, but I swear it does get better. **

**I only own Scarlet and Lily.**

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><p>The first thing I heard the next morning was my alarm going off and the next was Lily groaning. She was the one who ended up reaching over and slamming her palm against the alarm, silencing its squealing. We went to bed a little bit after eleven o'clock last night, but it was still hard to get up after sleeping late all summer.<p>

"I can't believe summer's over already! It went by way too fast, like, June was yesterday," Lily complained as we both made our way downstairs for breakfast.

Eating breakfast seemed to wake us up the rest of the way. The two of us getting ready in the only bathroom was a joke, it was so small. We brushed our teeth easily enough and I left my wand plugged in to heat up. A few minutes later I heard Scott swear loudly and knew that he'd touched it.

"I plug that wand in every morning, you'd think you'd realize not to touch it. I thought the first seven times would've taught you, but you had to make it an even eight!" I shouted as I tucked my top into my skirt.

I made my way into the bathroom with him and bopped him out of the way with my hip so I could start my makeup. I was applying my mascara when he finished brushing his teeth and headed back to finish getting ready. Lily quickly took his spot and did her own mascara. We'd perfected a system after many mornings like this together.

"My car's running on fumes so we need to leave earlier so I can get gas," she told me. "I'd really hate for the both of us to be late on the first day of junior year."

I nodded and grabbed my backpack, following her out to her Camry. Stiles' Jeep was sitting in the driveway idling with him behind the wheel, waiting for me to come out. I told Lily to go ahead as I climbed into the car with him. I saw her wave at us before she pulled out with Scott not far behind her on his dirt bike.

"I am so sorry that I made you mad last night! I was wound up because of the deer, I guess," he told me, extending a coffee cup to me. "I also made you coffee, hazelnut creamer your favorite. Do you still hate me?"

"I could never hate you, idiot," I smiled, taking the coffee from his hand. "The coffee's just an added bonus."

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><p>As soon as we got to school, I hugged Stiles briefly before making my way over to Lily where she stood at our lockers. She eyed the coffee cup in my hand but didn't call me on it. I'm sure she knew that Stiles had made if for me and she would wait for the perfect time to use it against me.<p>

She and I had the same first class, Advanced Physics with Mr. Harris. She and I sat down at a lab table together, trying to ignore Mr. Harris' glare. He hated Scott so, by association, he also hated me. I actually did pretty well in science related classes, but it didn't really matter to him.

"Doth my eyes deceive me?" he asked, looking at Lily and myself. "I'd expect Miss Trent to be in here, but definitely not you, Miss McCall."

I just rolled my eyes at his words, but I figured it was best to not respond as snidely as I wanted. I didn't want to be hated until at least the second week. I listened to him lecture on the principles of physics, I even took notes just in case we had to miss class because of werewolf business. I didn't want to give the ass a reason to fail me. The last thing I wanted was to make him right and not belong in this class.

He was about thirty minutes into his lecture when I heard the first scream. It came from the classroom across from ours that Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Lydia were all in. I was up and on my feet heading that way before Mr. Harris even stopped his lecture. I heard him shouting for me to come back, but I was already gone.

Inside the classroom, I couldn't believe what I was seeing: it was pure chaos! Black birds were flying all over the classroom through a smashed open window. It didn't look like they were hurting the students on purpose, they were trying to hit the walls.

It was almost like they were trying to kill themselves…but animals didn't think like that. It made absolutely no sense to me. They didn't think like that, did they?

I kept looking until I saw Stiles, Lydia, and Allison. The girls were smushed under one desk with Stiles' body over both of theirs. The moron was trying to be the hero like usual, trying to keep the girls safe from the birds' beaks and feet.

I looked at every face and under ever desk as best as I could, but I couldn't find Scott anywhere. Fear coursed through me and made me pull my phone out to call him. It went straight to voicemail and made my fear increase. Where the hell was he? My next call was to Sheriff Stilinski to report the birds. I didn't know if the cops were necessarily the right choice, but they couldn't be the wrong one, right?

"Miss McCall, put away your phone and get back in this classroom," Mr. Harris shouted at me from the door of his classroom.

"Mr. Harris, there are birds flying in this classroom!" I replied. Then I opened the door after all the birds seemed to be dead on the floor. "What's going on in here?"

"Scarlet!" Allison shouted, jumping to her feet and making her way over to me quickly. "Are you okay? Did this happen anywhere else?"

"No, I heard a scream and thought I should come see what was happening. I'm a McCall after all," I told her after I released her from my hug. Once Lydia and Stiles joined us, I asked, "Are you all okay?"

"We're all good, it's just a bunch of dead birds now," he said, squeezing my arm reassuringly. "I should probably go call my dad."

"Oh, about that, I already called him earlier when I saw what happened," I told him sheepishly, looking down at my toes. "Sorry to steal your thunder."

"Do you know why your brother left? The principal just came into class and got him without any words," Stiles asked as Lydia and Allison left to give us privacy.

That made my pulse start racing and my breath get a little faster. "No, I called him earlier, but it went to voicemail. I was already freaking out over it, it's just worse now!"

He grasped my shoulders in his hands and rubbed his thumbs over my collarbone soothingly. "I'm sure everything's okay. If it was really bad, you would've gotten taken out, too."

I nodded, but I was still freaking out. Stiles sensed that and pulled me close, hugging me tightly to his chest. I wrapped my arms around his torso and inhaled his familiar scent. It calmed my racing heart more than I wanted to admit and wouldn't to anyone other than Lily.

"Miss McCall, I hate to ruin your moment with the village idiot, but there's a class you've got to attend," Mr. Harris said, making me pull out of Stiles' embrace reluctantly.

Stiles pressed a fast kiss to my forehead and whispered, "Scott's fine, he's got too many people here who care about him to do anything too stupid."

I knew somewhere deep down that he was right, but I couldn't shake the tight, sinking feeling in my stomach. Unfortunately, it was an all too familiar feeling when it came to Beacon Hills. I always got it right before something really bad happened.

As I walked past her, I heard Lydia say something that chilled me to the bone.

"It's like Beacon Hills is turning into a Beacon for the bizarre and supernatural."

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><p><strong>Only positive reviews, please :)<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**This isn't edited and it sort of cuts off at the end. I didn't want to cut it off in the middle of drama so I did it quickly here. **

**Sorry if it's sort of shitty.**

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><p>By the time school ended, I still hadn't heard from Scott. As soon as I walked out of the building, I dialed his number again and waited while it rang. He finally answered it and sounded really tired and out of breath.<p>

"Where the hell have you been?! I called you earlier, but you didn't answer and I've been freaking out all day long," I shouted, sitting on a bench outside school. "You can't just leave and then ignore my calls when you do. It's not okay!"

"If I tell you what I did today, you can't freak out about it," he said and I felt my heart start beating a little bit faster. "I went to the hospital because Isaac was attacked this morning. When I got to the hospital, I found three more of the alphas from that new pack were here. I was fighting one of them, more like getting my ass kicked, in an elevator when Derek showed up. He helped me get out of there, but they're still very much alive and very much scary."

"Holy shit, are you okay?" I asked quickly. "You were in a fight with an alpha, that's huge! Oh wait, is Isaac okay?"

"He's here at Derek's house with me right now. Do you think you could tell Stiles to meet up with us here?" he asked, I could hear talking in the background. "You can come too if you want, but it's nothing important. I figure you've got plans with Lily or something…"

"You couldn't just call him? What makes you think that I'm with Stiles right now?" I asked sassily, crossing my legs.

"Because you're always with Stiles or Lily," he answered just as Lily sat down beside me. "I mean, they are your best friends and everything…"

I felt my phone leave my hands and looked up to see that Stiles had taken it. I sighed and leaned back against the bench with Lily as I waited for him to give it back. I expected him to head out after he gave me back my phone, but he sat down on my other side. There wasn't very much of it left so he was pressed against me, making my heart speed up a little more.

"I'm going over to Derek's, do you all want to come with?" he asked, turning his body to face Lily and me.

"I have to go pick up Lyle from school so I can't, but I'm sure Scar wants to go," Lily said, elbowing me in the ribs. "Don't you, babe?"

"I thought we had plans to do homework together this afternoon? Are you trying to get rid of me?" I asked, flashing her puppy dog eyes. "Is your little brother more important to you than I am?"

She winked before standing up and saying, "No, but I think you_ brother_ is more important to you than I am…"

I knew that she was actually talking about Stiles because she knew that I was into him. There was a reason that she was my best friend, she knew me better than anyone else. I pushed her away and winked before following Stiles over to his Jeep. I was about to reach out and grab the door handle when he opened it up for me.

"What are you doing? I can open my door for myself," I said, putting my hands on my hips and stomping my foot. "I'm an independent woman!"

He rolled his eyes as he waited for me to get up into the Jeep before shutting the door behind me. I sat my backpack in the floorboard by my feet and put on my seatbelt while I waited for him to get inside with me. I was tapping my fingers against my thigh while I waited, but he wasn't getting inside.

I looked out the window and frowned when I saw why. He was talking to Lydia, of course. I knew better than to even try to get his attention as anything other than Scott's sister. I got back out of the car and walked up to them.

"Scott sounded okay on the phone so I think I'm going to go with Lily. I'll see you guys later," I said, waving at them both before going over to Lily's car. Once I was inside, I said, "I'm never going to compare to her, am I?"

"I'm not even sure if he's in love with her or if he's obsessed with her," she replied, driving towards the middle school.

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><p>"I don't want to go alone with Scott and Stiles to a party! Come with us, Lily," I begged over the phone. "I want to be with someone who's not going to be chasing after girls."<p>

"Uhm, I don't think I'm the one to go with you then…" She laughed, but I could hear her rummaging through her closet as we spoke. "Or did you forget I prefer my mates to have boobs?"

"Shut up, you know what I mean. Scott's trying to get over Allison and Stiles is just horny," I replied, picking out an outfit as I spoke. "I need a friend."

"I'll go with you if you bring me those cute booties that you wore today," she bargained. "I'll be at your place in ten minutes to get ready."

I didn't even get to respond to the text before Lily hung up. I just stripped and put on my dress that I was wearing to the party. I had just pulled it up when Stiles pushed into my room. I held the top to my chest, I wasn't wearing a bra, and tried to hide that I was almost naked.

"Hey, can you zip this up for me?" I asked, turning my back to Stiles and pushing my hair over my shoulder. I looked back at him and said, "It would be so sweet!"

He was turning more shades of red than I recognized as he walked forward to me. I could feel his hands sweating as he reached out to grab my zipper. It took him a couple tries before he actually got it pulled all the way up to the top. I let my hair back the way it was and turned around to face him.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I stood on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. I heard the doorbell ring and skipped downstairs, leaving Stiles standing shell-shocked in my bedroom. I can't believe that I actually did that, it was so ballsy and brave, so not me.

"Hey sun-, oh my god, what happened?" she asked, pushing me backwards and walking into the house with me. "You're blinding me with your happy glow!"

I held my finger up to my lips and dragged her upstairs to my room. Stiles was still standing where I left him except he had a goofy grin on his lips now. That made butterflies explode in my stomach, I gave him that smile instead of Lydia.

"Hey, do you mind heading out so Lily and I can get ready?" I asked, placing a hand on his arm and jarring him out of his thoughts.

"Oh, yeah, I can head out now. Do you want to ride over with me or is Lily driving you or…" He trailed off but kept flailing his arms and moving his neck jerkily.

"We can ride over with you," Lily answered as I giggled. "But right now I have to get dressed. I'm going to start getting naked whether you're gone or not."

When he left, she instantly pounced on me. "What the hell did I miss? He was looking at you like a lost puppy!"

"I asked him if he would zip up the back of my dress earlier and he was his usual nervous self while doing it. Then I kissed his cheek," I said, slipping my earrings in and touching up my makeup. "It wasn't anything, but I was the one who made him smile like that instead of Lydia."

"It would be easier if you hated her, you know? If you hated her, you could bad mouth her and stuff, but you guys are friends," she said as she got dressed.

"Welcome to my world, I can't hate her even if I want to," I agreed, digging out my booties from earlier and tossing them to her before putting on my heels.

"Holy shit, those are some big heels! Can you walk in them?" she asked whenever I stood up from my bed. "I don't want to be picking you up from the floor all night at this stranger's party."

Scott pushed my door open with Stiles right behind him. "We're going to leave you two here! You take so long to get ready it's unreal!"

I grabbed my bag off my bed and put it over my body as I walked up to him. "Oh whatever, you took longer than both of us to get ready this morning. Don't even lie!"

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><p>Stiles parked his car and we all started walking over to the girl's house. I was smiling when I heard the music pouring out of the windows, I was really excited. This was a normal teenage thing to do and we never got to do normal things!<p>

I felt fingers wrap around my wrist and I saw that they belonged to Stiles. He pulled me back behind Scott and Lily to whisper in my ear, "You look really good tonight, Scar."

I knew my cheeks were burning by the time we made it to the door. Stiles stepped forward and walked inside, seeing as he was the only one invited, and the rest of us followed. As soon as I stepped in the door, I saw a blonde girl with her mouth pressed to Stiles' in a passionate kiss.


	4. Chapter 4

**It's really hard to work an entire episode of the show into a chapter. I didn't really think about that before I started this...**

**Anyhow, I'm sort of making up dialogue because I'm using the wiki page to remember what happened. Yeah.**

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><p>My stomach plummeted to my feet when she asked him to go get some wine with her and he agreed. We <em>all<em> knew that meant they were going to hook up! It was like what happened with us just didn't matter to him. Just when I thought I might have a chance with him, he goes and does shit with some random girl. I immediately wanted to go home, but I felt my phone ring and glanced down at it.

_Scott's not answering my text. Lydia and I are outside and we need to talk to you guys._

Allison texted me for some reason and she was here with Lydia. I was actually grateful for an excuse to get out of this party and away from Stiles being attached to some girl. I didn't want to see him with Lydia much less some random blonde slut. No, that was rude, I didn't even know this girl and slut-shaming was wrong.

"Hey Scott, Allison just texted me and said that she was outside with Lydia," I said, walking up to him and taking his wrist. "She said that you're ignoring her texts."

He yanked his phone out of his pocket and I saw him frowning. "She texted me and so did Lydia, oh. Do you want to come outside with me and talk to them? Lily seems to be having fun with that girl and Stiles probably has his hands full..."

I flinched a little at the implication and followed him back out onto the lawn. Lydia and Allison were standing off to the side with their heads bent in intense conversation. We walked up to them and Scott cleared his throat so they would look up at us. Allison seemed relieved that I'd came out with him. I guess things were still rocky between the two of them.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked when I saw that Scott was too busy staring at Allison to form words. "Is something wrong?"

"No, it's actually something Lydia noticed about our bruises," she said, rolling up her sleeve as Lydia did the same. "They're symmetrical."

They placed their forearms together and showed them to Scott and me. It looked like one of them had outlined the bruises and together they made a symbol. It looked familiar, but not familiar enough for me to place where I'd seen it before.

"Your bruises are the same?" Scott asked, finally joining the conversation. "I'm still confused on how they don't look like that girl's hands…"

"Yeah, but it's not like things in this town ever make sense!" Lydia exclaimed, dropping her arm and glaring at Scott. "Sorry, I'm just agitated lately."

"That's cool, guys, just leave me at a party from another high school!" Lily said, slamming the door behind her and coming down to stand with us. "I love talking to large groups of strangers!"

"You seemed to be pretty happy in there," I said, smiling at her. "That girl seemed to really be keeping your attention pretty well…"

"I was until her boyfriend came back and shoved his tongue down her throat," she groaned, tossing her hands into the air.

"Okay, back to the bruises. What do you think they are?" Allison asked gently, trying to turn the attention back to the situation at hand, or arm, I guess.

"I think we should show them to Derek tomorrow and see what he thinks," Scott said, running a hand over his face in frustration. "Unless any of you have a better idea."

"That's probably the best idea considering we don't know anything," I agreed, crossing my arms over my chest as the cool air finally caught my attention.

"You look like you're froze, Scarlet. Why don't you go back inside and find Stiles so we can leave?" Scott asked, pointing to the door. "I'll wait out here with them."

I glared at him, he was trying to get me inside to find Stiles. The last thing I wanted was to go find him in the middle of having sex with that blonde. I nodded reluctantly but grabbed Lily's arm and tugged her inside with me. The point of having a best friend was that you never had to do anything by yourself.

I held her hand as we walked back into the party to look for him. I made my way over to the door that led downstairs to the basement. I figured I should go down there and look for him. I went down the stairs slowly and expected to find the most carnal things I could imagine, but I just saw Stiles standing by himself with a shoe in his hands.

"Hey, why are you down here alone? Heather's not going to pop out completely naked or anything, is she?" Lily asked, taking my hand in hers as she spoke.

"I guess she got second thoughts or something because she left while I was upstairs," he said, showing us the shoe in his hand. "When I came back down here, this was the only thing left."

There was something about that that struck me as weird. Girls never left their shoes places especially when the shoes cost as much as the heel Stiles was holding. I knew because I had the same ones at home and I would murder for them. I pulled my phone out of my bag and turned on the flashlight before looking around the basement for her.

After I searched everywhere, there was no sign that she and Stiles had even been down here. I shrugged off the uncomfortable feeling working its way up my spine and walked back up to Lily and Stiles.

"I don't know, something just doesn't feel right about her just leaving her shoe. Those are super expensive shoes to just leave somewhere," I said as we all went back upstairs.

"This is her house, maybe she figured she'd come back down here and get it later," Stiles said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess she just changed her mind."

My immediate reaction was to comfort him, but then I remembered how shitty he made me feel earlier so I didn't. I just crossed my arms and walked outside to find Scott, assuming that Lily and Stiles were following me. I shivered again while we were walking back to the Jeep, trying to pull my arms closer to my body to conserve more of my body heat.

"Hey, the Jeep's just up there," Stiles whispered in my ear.

"Yeah, I see it," I replied, walking a little faster to get to it so I could get warm. I turned around and shouted over my shoulder, "Is it unlocked?"

I pulled the door handle and saw that it was, so I slid inside. I sat with my arms crossed and my head leaning against the window the entire way back to my house. Lily seemed to understand because she kept up my end of the conversation as Scott filled Stiles in on the bruises.

"So they're identical bruises?" he asked, trying to figure it out. "I wish I could've seen them."

"Well if you weren't so hormonal and stupid you could've," I said, forcing my door open and stomping inside of the house. I was muttering under my breath the entire way, "Stupid, hyperactive, dumbass."

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><p>I rode to school with Scott the next morning and hoped that it didn't completely destroy my hair. I went straight to the bathroom and fixed the disaster that it ended up being before going and finding Lily. I slide my headband further down on my forehead and twisted my curls back into place.<p>

I walked out into the hallway and made my way over to my locker. There was a note taped to it that struck me as weird, no one stuck notes to things anymore, they just texted each other. When I got to my locker, I tore the piece of paper off the metal and opened it up.

_I want the alpha. I'll do anything to get him._

The note made fear prickle along the back of my skull and work its way through me. That paper was signed at the bottom with a mark that I'd never seen before. It was three lines that were twisted together and looked almost like a swastika, except there were only three angles.

Someone touched my shoulder and made me shriek as I turned around. Stiles had his eyebrows raised when he looked down at me, smirking slightly. I shrugged his hand off and handed him the note before opening up my locker to get my books for class.

"What does this mean? Who sent this?" he asked after he read it. "Why did you get one and no one else did?"

I shrugged and said, "I don't know, I figured you could figure it out better than the rest of us. You're pretty clever most of the time, as much as I hate to admit it."

"Hey, did I do something that pushed you too far last night or upset you?" he asked when he noticed how clipped my tone was. "Can you tell me how to fix it?"

I felt someone's arm wrap around my shoulder and looked up to see that it was Scott's. He must've sense my unease because he wasn't even in sight when we were talking. I squeezed his arm in thanks before taking the note out of Stiles' hands and giving it to Scott.

"This was taped to my locker this morning," I explained as we walked to class. "What does it mean?"

He looked up from the paper and locked eyes with Stiles. "This is the same symbol that was painted on Derek's door yesterday. It's got to mean something to him, I mean, he _is_ the alpha."

"I guess that means we have more things to talk to him about today," I sighed. "I'll meet up with you all in the library after class. Don't get attacked by any suicidal animals before then, okay?"

I saw Stiles reaching out for me, but I kept walking away from him. I didn't want him to touch me or talk to me right now. I knew I was being childish, but my feelings were still hurt from last night. He was one of my best friends and I needed to get over being so butthurt about his feelings for every girl that wasn't me.

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><p>I was standing in the library with Scott when Stiles, Lydia, and Allison walked in with us. Apparently Derek was supposed to meet up with us here for some reason. I didn't even want to know why he could get into the school as easily as he could. That couldn't be safe…<p>

"What's so important that you have to show it to me right now?" he asked in annoyance, crossing his arms as he addressed us.

"Lydia and Allison have bruises from that girl that saved Isaac on their arms. They're the same on both sides," Scott explained, gesturing for them to show Derek. "It's got to mean something, right?"

He glanced down at their arms fleetingly before looking back up at Scott. "They just look like bruises to me."

"It's pareidolia, a phenomenon that causes the brain to make patterns out of things that aren't really there," Lydia explained, pulling her sleeve back down.

"They're just trying to help, Derek," I said tersely when he saw that Derek still didn't care about the bruises.

He raised his eyebrows in shock at me before pointing to Lydia, "This one who used me to resurrect my psychotic uncle. Thank you, by the way." Then he pointed to Allison, "And this one who shot about thirty arrows into me and my pack."

"Okay, that's true, but there was mangling and maiming, but there was no actual death," Scott says, trying to smooth over the brewing fight.

"Actually, my mother died," Allison pointed out quickly, glaring over at Derek and crossing her arms over her chest.

"That was because of your family's honor code, not because of me," Derek retorted sassily, making me bite my lip and take a step back from the pair of them. This wasn't going to end well, they were both too hot-tempered.

"Whatever, I'm here to help Scott, not you, so it doesn't matter," she dismissed, pulling her sleeve back down and crossing her arms.

Scott took Derek off to the side to talk to him about something that we couldn't hear so it just left Allison, Lydia, and me. I smiled at them and tapped my foot anxiously, I don't know why it was awkward but it was. The bell rang to signal class changes and I all but ran to Econ.

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><p><strong>Thaaaaaaaanks for reading, babies :)<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**This is an extra long chapter because I wanted to finished the episode. I think I'm going to start doing an episode per chapter and work in my own twists. **

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><p>I had just sat down in econ when the desk next to mine squeaked welcomingly. I looked over to see that Danny was sitting beside me, I forgot that he was in class. I smiled at him happily, turning my body to face him.<p>

"Hey, I forgot you were in this class! How was your summer?" I asked, instantly falling into social butterfly mode.

"It was pretty great. I spent most of it in Hawaii with my parents and grandparents," he said with an easygoing smile, he was as much of a social butterfly as I was.

"Oh, that sounds so amazing! It looks like it would be so beautiful there, and I bet the boys were even better," I giggled, winking at him when he nodded.

"Judging by the way Stiles is looking at you, you had a summer full of boys," he said with a knowing look on his face. "Or _boy_ I guess I should say."

"I wish it would've been a summer full of Stiles, but it wasn't that easy," I sighed, placing my chin on my hand as I rested my elbow on the table. "He was stuck on Lydia, but what else is new, right?"

"With the way he was looking over at you just now, I would beg to differ," he trailed off before turning around to face Coach Finstock.

I ignored that statement and focused on the Coach, trying my hardest to not look over at Stiles. It became easier when Coach started teaching us about economics, he was so dramatic it was impossible to ignore him. He was blathering on about the stock market when he stopped after asking a question.

I saw my brother's hand go up and apparently so did the Coach. "You can go to the bathroom, McCall."

"No, Coach, I know the answer to the question," he smiled, making Coach's face a mask of confusion. "The two principles the stock market is based off of are risk and reward."

I nodded my head in approval for him giving the correct answer. The universal look of shock that everyone in the room shared was almost comical. I guess no one was aware that Scott was tired of being the 'idiot' and that he spent most of his free time this summer studying.

"Way to go, McCall! Good hustle," Coach said after he recovered from the initial shock of Scott answering a question _correctly_. "On a different note, does anyone have a quarter?"

I saw a spastic movement from the corner of my eye and knew that it had to be Stiles. I turned to look at him and heard the clang of change hitting the linoleum. The classroom was silent for a second or two so I glanced down at the floor to see what everyone was looking at.

A square package was sitting on the floor with change scattered around it. I focused in a little bit harder and felt my cheeks heating up harshly. He had a condom in his pocket and it was now on the floor for everyone to see. I think the most shocking part was that it was an XXL sized. I couldn't help but be a little bit impressed by it…

Coach Finstock bent over and picked it up, handing it back to Stiles. "Congratulations, Stilinski."

If I thought my cheeks were red, I couldn't even begin to describe the color of Stiles' cheeks. They were so red I was expecting them to start attracting bulls. It was almost adorable how embarrassed he was, but then I remembered what size the condom was and I had to look down before I did something embarrassing.

"Okay, so we're going to play a game to show you hellions what McCall was talking about," he said, shaking his head and walking back to the front of the room with Stiles' quarter. "If you bounce this quarter into the cup, you don't have to take the pop quiz."

"Actually, Coach, if you tell us about the quiz, I don't think it's a 'pop' quiz," Danny said with a dimpled smirk on his lips, making me giggle behind my hand.

Danny ended up having to go for being a smartass and making it so he didn't have to take the not-pop quiz. Stiles was supposed to go next only for a knock at the door to stop all of us. Sheriff Stilinski walked inside and gestured for Stiles to follow him out into the hallway.

I looked over to make sure Scott was listening in on their conversation. As soon as Finstock let us break off into partners to do our assignment, I was at his desk. I waited not so patiently for him to tell me what he was overhearing.

"He's saying that Heather is missing and Stiles was the last person to be seen with her," he whispered, still straining to hear the conversation. "Stiles said he assumed that she wasn't into him and left to be with her friends."

"Do they think that Stiles is the one who killed that girl?!" I whispered harshly, clutching Scott's arm tightly in my hand. "I may be pissed at him, but I know he didn't hurt her and so do you."

"No, I don't think he's saying that. His tone is questioning instead of accusing, I think he's asking because they're looking for her," he explained quickly as Stiles came back into the room and perched on the desk I was sitting in.

He was playing with his fingers nervously when he finally spoke, "Our moms were best friends and we grew up together. We used to take baths together whenever we were three! We _have_ to find her."

I flinched a little at how passionate he was about her, even if it was about finding her. I reached out and stilled his jerky hands, making him look down at me. I smiled softly, trying to comfort him as best I could.

He returned it before continuing, "I think that the alpha pack is behind this. I can't understand why I think so, I just do…"

"I think so, too. I mean, it can't just be a coincidence that she went missing as soon as they came into town," I said, sliding my hand into Stiles' as I spoke.

"It's a little weird," Scott agreed, and I could already see the gears turning in his head. "The only way to find out is to go to Derek's loft after school ends and see what they've got with Isaac. If that backfires, we go to Deaton."

Stiles and I agreed with him before we all actually started the project we were assigned twenty minutes ago.

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><p>We ended up at Deaton's after school was over with Isaac in tow. Scott was talking to Deaton over to the side so I went over to Isaac. I hadn't check on him since his attack and felt kind of bad about it. He and I were friends, but we weren't exceptionally close to each other.<p>

"Hey," I smiled, walking up to him and waving. "How are you? I heard about the attack and the hospital stay and then the other attack at the hospital you were staying at."

He laughed and his smile made a smile pull at my lips. "Yeah, I guess that did happen, didn't it? I'm good now, I guess, I'm all healed up and everything."

I bumped him with my shoulder and grinned. "I'm glad you're okay, it would've sucked if you went missing, too. I'm tired of losing my friends."

He smiled and pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me and holding me close. I sagged against his form and hugged him back. I didn't realize how much I'd needed a hug until I got one and realized how amazing it felt.

"If you two are finished, I'd like to get started," Derek said, making Isaac and I let go of each other and put some space between us.

I glanced over to the corner and saw Stiles glaring over at Isaac and me. It was the same look I always gave him and Lydia whenever they were together. Was Stiles _jealous_ of mine and Isaac's hug?

I shook the thought away and looked at the tub that was in the center of the room that was now full of ice. "What are you going to do to him? That's a lot of ice…"

"Lowering Isaac's body temperature will lower his heart rate and allow him to slip into a trance like state, almost like hypnosis. He'll be half transformed, and that will allow us to get into his subconscious mind," Deaton explained to all of us.

"How slow does my heart have to be?" Isaac asked, crouching down next to the tub and placing his hand over the ice water.

"Almost stopped," he finally said.

"So is this safe?" Isaac asked after he pulled his hand away from the water like a wounded puppy when he realize how cold it was.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Deaton remarked, crossing his arms over his chest.

After we all agreed that we didn't want the answer, Isaac got ready to get inside. He tossed me his shirt before submerging himself in the icy water. He tried to come out a couple of times so Derek and Scott had to hold him under the water. It was so scary that I ended up clutching Stiles and hiding my face against his shoulder. I didn't want to watch Isaac suffer after everything that he's been through already.

In the end, he came back up and started talking quickly as I wrapped him up in a blanket. He said that he remembers finding Boyd at the Beacon Hills First National Bank in one of the vaults. He adds later on that he also remembers seeing Erica's dead body.

"There's no way Erica's dead! Who else would've been in the vault with Boyd other than her?" Derek asked, approaching Isaac with rage in his eyes.

"Maybe it was the mystery girl that saved Isaac the other day…?" Scott suggested, trying to diffuse the fight that was brewing between them.

"No, the girl that saved me wasn't like us and they girl in the vault with Boyd was," Isaac argued, tugging his shirt back on now that he was relatively dry.

"Maybe they're making them fight each other every full moon like a werewolf thunderdome or something," Scott suggested, making me bite my lip at the obscurity of that idea. "We need to figure out a plan to rescue whoever's in that vault with Boyd."

Stiles seemed happy to finally have something to do and eagerly jumped into planning the bank break in.

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><p>We'd left the clinic and went to Derek's loft two hours ago, and I was sitting with Isaac on the couch. I had my head on his shoulder as Derek and Stiles talked about something. Then Derek drew back and punched Stiles hand so hard that I flinched, but I knew it wasn't as hard as it could've been.<p>

"Okay, so what's the plan?" I asked, standing up and deciding to become part of the plan.

"We're going to break in just like the original robbers did. There's a narrow air duct that starts on the roof and goes all the way down into the vault," Derek explained, turning to face me. "I think I can punch through the wall so we can get into the bank."

"Oh so is that why you punched the hell out of Stiles a while ago?" I asked, looking over at Stiles and giggling.

"Okay, so who wants to follow me down into the vault?" Derek asked after I stopped making fun of Stiles.

Peter was the first to respond, which didn't honestly shock me. "I'm not fully up to fighting speed just yet so I think I'm going to bow out."

I saw Derek look over to Scott so I instantly went into mother hen mode. "No way is Scott going into the 'werewolf thunderdome' where he could get hurt! No way am I letting that happen! Nope, not a chance of that happening ever."

"Scar, I'm going to be just fine. Derek needs someone to go with him and I'm going to be the one," Scott replied, holding onto my shoulders and giving them a reassuring squeeze.

I knew there was no changing his mind once he decided to do something so I just nodded. Scott was strong and smart, he wouldn't get hurt without a justified reason. Or at least I told myself that as reassurance the entire ride back to Derek's loft with Stiles, Peter, and Isaac.

Later on we were all standing around the bank's blueprints when Stiles said, "Maybe they live in the bank? That would be weird, though, because I figured that they would have a lair of some sort."

"They're werewolves, not Le Chiffre," Peter remarks, making me want to slap him. He goes on to tease Stiles further when he says, "I live in a series of underground tunnels and caves beneath the city."

"Really?" Stiles asked in sheer amazement.

I rolled my eyes at how gullible he was before turning back to the blueprints. There had to be some reason that the alphas were keeping them in the vault. The idea made absolutely no sense unless they were trying to lure us in, but we didn't know where they were… I'm so confused and I think trying to figure it out just made it worse.

"What are the walls made of?" Peter asked, drawing my attention away from the blueprints and up to him.

Stiles raised his eyebrows at the random question, but I saw his fingers moving over the keyboard on his phone. It took a couple minutes before he said, "Some mineral called Hecatolite."

"That's another word for Moonstone!" I exclaimed, making all both of them look at me in shock. "What? I started doing my fair share of research when Scott got bitten."

Peter seemed impressed before going into an explanation of what that meant, "The Hecatolite blocks the natural moonlight from getting inside the vault which means that it's not getting in to the prisoners so they haven't transformed in the four months they've been trapped. It's like starving the lions before sending the Roman gladiators in to fight them. They're starving and bloodthirsty with all built up energy they have right now. Boyd and whoever's in there with him will turn into complete monsters the moment the moonlight hits them. They're the lions and Scott and Derek are the gladiators."

I had my phone out and was dialing Scott's number before Peter even finished talking. I called it three times and on the fourth he finally answered me.

"What, Scarlet? I'm kind of busy right now," he whispered tersely.

"The walls are Moonstone and filter out all the natural moonlight. The moment the moonlight hits them they're going to be out to kill anything and everything," I explained quickly. "You and Derek have got to get out of their right now!"

He didn't respond and the last thing I heard before the line went dead was a feminine voice telling them to get out of the vault and terrifying growls. I dropped my phone onto the desk and whirled around to face Stiles, Peter, and Isaac.

"They're being attacked right now! It was a trap, they're both inside with Boyd and a girl," I said, feeling my lungs going into over drive and my throat tightening.

"Hey, you're having an anxiety attack," Stiles said suddenly. "You need to calm down."

He rushed over to me and held onto my upper arms, rubbing his thumbs over my shoulders. I made myself focus on the feel of that instead of Scott, and felt myself slowly start breathing normally again. When I calmed down, I leaned forward and laid my head against his chest.

"You're okay, I promise. Scott is smart and reckless enough to get out of there just fine," he whispered, pulling me close to him and holding me tight. "It's okay."

"If you two are finished, I'd like to go try and find them," Peter quipped, but we stayed wrapped around each other for a little while longer.

I finally pulled away, keeping his hand tightly in mine, and followed Peter outside.

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><p><strong>Yay! I'm going to be able to start a new episode next chapter and I'm excited! <strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Holy fuck, I thought I uploaded this forever ago! I'm so sorry that it's so late, you guys. **

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><p>I was almost completely crazy by the time Scott called me that night. He said that he'd rescued two little kids from Boyd, and that he and Cora (the girl in the vault, I assumed) were on a killing rampage. I ended up going home with Stiles because I was too freaked out to go home by myself. He didn't fight me too hard when I asked him so I figured he was a little freak out, too.<p>

"I know that Scott and Derek are going to be okay, but I'm still freaked," I said as we pulled into his driveway. "I hate that I can't do anything to help them, you know?"

He was about to respond when his phone went off in the cup holder. I saw Lydia's name flash across the screen and I felt my heart drop to my stomach.

Apparently she found a dead body at the public pool and wanted Stiles to come be with her. I rolled my eyes at how quickly Stiles was back on the road on his way to Lydia. Then I remembered that there was a dead body and felt a shiver course through my spine. What if Boyd and Cora had killed the person at the pool?

"Stiles, do you think that Boyd and Cora killed this person?" I asked when he pulled in next to Lydia's car. "I didn't think that Boyd was capable of murder before, but after hearing how freaking out Scott was…"

He looked at me with a grimace before getting out of the Jeep. I figured he'd run over to Lydia, but he waited for me and took my hand securely in his. I relaxed as we made our way to a trembling Lydia. She was standing at the entrance of the pool waiting for us, looking really shaken up.

"I found a body and figured that I should call someone," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Stiles squeezed my hand before letting it go and going to take a closer look at the dead body. I stood back with Lydia, wrapping my arm around her shoulders in comfort. She leaned against me and let out a shaky breath as she held my waist. See what I mean? We were friends so I couldn't hate her.

"We need to call my dad," Stiles said after he came back over to the pair of us.

"Oh, I already did that before I called you," Lydia replied, standing up straighter and letting go of me.

"You called the cops before you called me? Every time you find a dead body I need to be the first one that you call!" Stiles cried, stomping his foot overdramatically.

I rolled my eyes at him before getting out my phone and calling Scott. It rang a couple of times before he answered it and sounded a little bit out of breath.

"Hey, we found a dead body and I figured I should call you," I said, holding onto Lydia's hand and trying to calm her down as I spoke. "I mean, there _are_ two vapid werewolves on the loose."

"Can you get a closer look at the body?" he asked.

I sighed before moving over to the lifeguard chair that the guy was sitting in. He was scary and bloody, but I knew I had to get a closer look. I was going to look for werewolf-like injuries, but something sliver on his hand caught my attention. He had a purity ring on his ring finger. I don't know why I did, but I made a mental note of it in the back of my mind.

"I don't know, his throat is sort of missing," I said quickly. "I don't know if it's a werewolf, but I don't know what else would be killing people like this!"

"Okay, calm down, Scar! Just have Stiles drop you off at home with mom," he said slowly. "I'm in the middle of something so can you call Isaac and tell him to meet me at the pool?"

I called Isaac like he said and went home with Stiles. I was going to spend the night with him because I really didn't want to be home alone tonight. We had just gotten to his house and changed into pajamas when my mom called me.

"I know you're with Stiles, both of you need to get to the hospital and meet with me," she said. "I have something important to show the both of you. I love you, and tell Stiles to drive carefully."

I sighed before telling her that I loved her and pulling on clothes again. I had stashed an emergency change of clothes here after the Kanima problem last year. I quickly pulled them on and met Stiles at his Jeep as I pulled my hair up into a bun on top of my head.

We stopped at the hospital and quickly ran inside to meet up with my mom. She led us to the morgue and started talking about how the guy Lydia found had come in with three injuries: strangulation, exsanguination from a cut at his throat, and a large blow to the head. Mom also said that he was the second one to come in with the same injuries.

"The second one?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, this girl came in yesterday," she said, pulling the sheet off of a familiar face.

I instantly grabbed Stiles hand and pressed my forehead against his shoulder. I'd just seen the girl looking as alive as I'd ever seen anyone. She'd just turned seventeen and now she was on a slab in the morgue.

"Oh my god, did you two know her?" mom asked, I could hear her covering the body back up quickly. "I'm so sorry."

She pulled me to her and hugged me tight as Stiles started explaining who she was. He let it slip that she'd been a virgin and it set off an alarm bell in my head.

"What if these are sacrifices? The guy we found at the pool was a virgin, he had on a purity ring," I said quickly, still holding Stiles hand and mom's side.

"Another girl came in earlier from the woods. She was out camping with her girlfriend and the girlfriend's still missing," mom said slowly. "I don't know if that has anything to do with this, but maybe she knows something…"

"I'll go talk to her, see if she opens up to me or something," I said, stepping towards the door only for mom to stop me. "What?"

"I know you're the most tactful of my children, including Stiles, but please be careful. Her girlfriend is lost in the woods and she's freaked out," she advised. "Approach with caution, okay?"

I walked down the hallway and made Stiles stay outside when I knocked. She told me to come inside and I shut the door before walking up to her bedside.

"Hi, I'm Scarlet McCall. I wondered if you wanted to talk about everything that happened to you," I said, chewing on my bottom lip as I spoke. "I know sometimes talking about things make them a little bit easier to handle."

She looked up at me and I saw that she was really distraught looking. "I was out camping with my girlfriend when she started freaking out about bugs. I didn't see any so just brushed it off, you know? Then she left the tent and started running through the woods. We ended up getting separated and I lost her in the woods."

"I'm sure everything will be okay. The Sherriff is great at what he does," I tried to comfort her, taking her hand in mine and rubbing my thumb over her knuckles.

"Tonight was supposed to be so special for us! She was a virgin and I was going to be her first," she explained, her eyes tearing up as she spoke. "I was going to make it a night for her to remember, and I guess she'll never forget it now."

I comforted her for a little while longer before going back outside to Stiles. I told him that the missing girl was a virgin and he immediately called Scott. After he told us everything about the school, Mrs. Blake being almost killed, and all the other werewolf things, Stiles brought him down to the morgue.

After he showed him Heather's body, Stiles said, "Scarlet said she thought they were human sacrifices because they were all virgins. While she was talking to Caitlin, I did some research on the injuries and found something else. That series of injuries is also known as the 'threefold death' and it's used for human sacrifices."

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><p><strong>Jesus take the wheel, I'm a terrible person. I'm so sorry.<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**This chapter is sooooo long. I tried to make it not drag on and worked in a little bit of Starlet (Stiles and Scarlet's ship name).**

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><p>It seemed like I had just fell asleep when my alarm went off in the morning. I remembered that I had cross country practice this morning so I had to get up two hours earlier. I sighed before sitting up and realizing that I wasn't alone in my bed. I would've screamed out if I hadn't saw a spattering of brown hair on the pillow and a gangly arm tossed over his head.<p>

"Stiles, it's time to wake up. We have practice today," I said, pushing on his shoulder and trying to wake him up. "Stilinski, it's time to wake up!"

"Mhmm, ten more minutes," he grumbled, rolling over and tossing an arm around my middle. "Come back and cuddle up with me."

I felt my cheeks heating up as he pulled my back to his chest and his breath hit the back of my neck. I knew he wasn't aware of what he was saying, but it didn't stop me from being embarrassed by his actions. I was about to break out of his grip, or that's what I told myself, when Scott burst into my room.

"Hey, there's practice in fifteen minutes! You guys better get up and stop snuggling," he shouted and I could hear him giggling like a school girl.

I got up and ran into the bathroom where I'd stashed my things last night. I guess I should explain why Stiles was in my bed this morning, shouldn't I? Well, after we finished everything up we all crashed here. I was still a little freaked out because someone was sacrificing _virgins_ and I was one. I didn't want to be alone even if my only protection was Stiles, he was better than I would be on my own.

I quickly pulled on my outfit and twisted my hair up with my bangs held back with a headband. I walked into my bedroom to see that Stiles was just tugging his t-shirt onto his body. I missed seeing any good parts, but his pink cheeks made me feel warm inside.

"Sorry, I forgot you were in here," I lied, grabbing my bag of school clothes off the bed. "What time is it?"

"Time for us to be on the road," Scott said, tossing me an apple and Stiles a granola bar. "We have to be a practice in ten minutes and Finstock will kill us if we're late."

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><p>We all met out at the beginning of the running trail, girls meeting up with the boys. Coach was talking about something, but I wasn't listening to a word coming out of his mouth. Everyone lined up so I followed behind Stiles and stood between him and Scott. I saw that two twins were on either side of Isaac, and I could feel Scott tensing up.<p>

"What's wrong?" I whispered, leaning into him. "Who are those twins with Isaac?"

"Those are two of the alphas from the pack, the ones who almost killed Isaac," he explained quietly. "Stay with Stiles, I'm going to go try and talk to them."

I nodded and when we started running, I loped carelessly beside Stiles. I knew he was slowed down to try and keep up with me because he was taller with longer legs. I glanced up and saw Scott running after Isaac quicker than _humanly _possible, but I knew that was normal for my brother.

"Isaac has too much of a temper and too short of a fuse sometimes," I said to Stiles after they both disappeared with the alpha twins. "I love him to death and I care about him, but it's true."

He was about to respond to me when we both heard a loud scream. I started full-out running towards the sound with Stiles a little bit ahead of me. I pushed myself harder until we were both in the middle of the hoard of students.

I looked at what they were looking at and saw what had caused the girl to scream. There was another body tied to the tree by what looked like a leash, but I wasn't getting any closer to find out.

"Why aren't you all still running? I didn't give you an okay to sto- oh sweet mother Mary," Coach swore as he caught up to all of us. "That's a dead body."

"Yeah, he's a senior," someone said to the Coach, making him pale.

I turned to Stiles and whispered, "Do you see the threefold death in there or is it just me?"

He nodded just as the cop cars pulled in. Another scream tore from behind us as a blonde girl ran toward the body. It clicked in my head then that she had to be his girlfriend and I recognized her from the hallway. Her name was Ashley, she complimented my outfit on the first day.

While the ruckus was happening, I snuck closer to the body with Isaac, Stiles, and Scott. I knew they were trying to find something that led them to the alphas while Stiles and I looked for something out of place.

"I'm sure that the twins did this. There's no other explanation," Isaac seethed, his eyes flashing gold. His voice was absolutely guttural when he growled out, "I want to rip them apart."

"I don't think they're the ones to blame. I mean, I'm not defending them at all, but I just don't think it's them," I said, taking his hand in mine and trying to calm him down.

"I agree, there is a definite lack of werewolfitude in these murders," Stiles said, studying the body as he spoke.

"I don't know what I believe yet, but I'm not counting anything out. I want to know more before I go out for blood," Scott answered, always the referee.

* * *

><p>After a ton of heckling from Mr. Harris, I switched into his normal level physics class. Lily told me that it was a pansy move, but I really just wanted to pass this year. Maybe I was quitting, but I wasn't going to focus too hard on that detail. It was also a big plus that I had it with all the guys, Lydia, and Allison.<p>

I sat next to Isaac and felt him tensing next to me. I glanced over at him and saw that he was clenching his jaw and his hands were fists under the table. I gripped one of his hands in both of mine and tried to calm him down as best I could. Like I told Stiles earlier, he was too hotheaded sometimes.

"Isaac, don't do anything stupid. They're not worth it," I heard Scott whisper from the desk behind ours. "They're just trying to get a rise out of you."

He growled at me and I felt his claws break the skin of my hand so he could tear his out of my grip. He jumped up to his feet and asked Mr. Harris to go to the bathroom abruptly.

"I have to go, too!" Scott shrieked quickly, jumping up and almost knocking his desk over in his haste.

"Not even if your bladder suddenly exploded and urine started to pour from every orifice on your body," Mr. Harris replied in an annoyed voice.

"Mr. Harris, I'm about to recreate a scene from Saw back here if I don't go to the bathroom right this second!" I screeched, jumping up and running towards the door before he could answer me.

I made it outside just as one of the twins slammed the other's head into a locker and tossed him at Isaac's feet. I quickly ran over to Isaac to make sure that the twins hadn't hurt him. I heard the door open again and saw the entire class spill into the hall with Mr. Harris in the lead.

"Mr. Lahey, Miss McCall, lunchtime detention for both of you!" he said, handing us both pink slips. Then he glanced down at the bloody boy on the floor, "Jesus, someone take him to the nurse or something."

I groaned and pushed Isaac back into the classroom when he tried to get at the twins again. The last thing I wanted was for him to do something stupid and get our detention extended.

After we sat back down, I glanced at my hand and saw that it was bleeding. I groaned and clenched my fist tightly to stop the bleeding until class ended and I could go to the bathroom.

I washed all the dried blood off and made sure the wound was clear before getting the first aid kit out of my backpack. I started packing it not long after Scott was bitten, I was always prepared for anything lately. I bandaged my hand up and went back out to meet Scott at his locker.

"What are you two looking at?" I asked when I saw him and Isaac glaring at something down the hallway.

"Aiden's asking Lydia out on a date," Scott breathed.

"I'm sure she turned him down because she loves to play with boys' emotions," I said snarkily before I could stop myself. They both look over at me so I quickly said, "Let's go, Lahey, we've got freakin' lunchtime detention."

We were supposed to organize the janitor's supply closet and when we got there I saw Allison already inside. I raised my brows before walking up to her with Isaac trailing behind me.

She must've saw my questioning gaze because she explained quickly, "I fell asleep during French class and Ms. Morrell gave me detention."

I nodded and left her and Isaac inside the closet for a second to grab a box of cleaning supplies. Just as I stepped back into the closet, the door slammed shut and I heard something fall in front of it. I tried to open the door, the knob would turn but not open the door.

Isaac came up beside of me and tried to push the door open with his werewolf strength, but it still didn't budge. He started beating on it and I heard his breathing getting labored. I instantly remembered the ice chest that he got locked in and knew he was having flashbacks of it, too.

"Hey, everything's okay, Isaac. We're going to be just fine, I promise," I said calmly, trying to grab his wrist in my good hand. "I can text Scott to come help and we'll be out in a couple of minutes. You just have to calm down before you hurt some-"

He pushed me off of him and I ended up slamming into one of the shelves. Pain exploded along the back of my head and I felt everything go a little bit fuzzy before I completely blacked out.

* * *

><p>I heard people talking around me, but I couldn't seem to get my eyes to open. I finally took a deep breath and forced them open to see that Stiles and Lydia were on either side of me. I glanced around and realized that I was in the nurse's office and had a blinding headache.<p>

"Hey, you're in the nurses office right now," Stiles whispered to me, rubbing his fingers over my hand. "Scott got all of you out of the closet and found you unconscious on the floor. Needless to say, he almost killed Isaac, he would've kept going if Allison didn't stop him."

I forced myself to sit up and gripped Lydia's hand when the room spun around. She held onto me as I tried my best to stand up, only to lean back against the bed when the room started to spin even faster. I felt a stinging sensation in my hand and remembered that Isaac had also cut my palm earlier today. Oh boy, he did a number on be today it seems.

"Okay, you're not going to move so I'm going to tell you what I've learned about the guy on the tree, Kyle. I asked his girlfriend if he was a virgin, which got me slapped, and found out that he wasn't. Then I saw Boyd put something on his memorial and found out that he's in ROTC," Stiles said, helping me sit back up on the bed and rubbing my knee absentmindedly as he spoke.

"You've always had the gift of being super subtle," I laughed, biting my bottom lip.

"Yeah, I'm aware. Are you aware that there's a temple in Calcutta, India where they once sacrificed a baby every day? Every day was dead baby day," Stiles said, trying to change the subject.

"What does sacrifice have to do with anything? Why are you telling us this?" Lydia asked in frustration. "I just thought we were going to get Scarlet an-"

"Which leads me to think that these sacrifices are coming in groups of threes. That's why Kyle wasn't a virgin, he's the start of the next group," Stiles went on like Lydia didn't even speak.

"It's impossible to discern a pattern from a single data point," I replied as the room slowly stopped moving. "Which means we have to find someone else in the same group as Kyle."

"This isn't either of your jobs, it's the cops'. They should be worrying about this and you guys should be taking care of Scarlet's injuries and going to class," Lydia said, helping me stand up.

"The FBI have been called in now, my dad's not leading this investigation anymore because they think that Beacon Hills has a serial killer," Stiles explained, keeping close to me as we walked.

I knew there was more to what he was saying, but he didn't want to get into it. I knew I should've pushed him further, but I couldn't find the energy.

"I'm going to go to class, please be careful and don't get hurt again," Lydia told me, hugging me before heading towards the music room.

"I'm going to go talk to Deaton about all of the sacrifices. Do you want to come with?" Stiles asked, gesturing towards the door as he spoke. "I'm kind of iffy about leaving you on your own, stumbles-a-lot."

I flipped him off but followed him out to his Jeep. I had a free period right now anyways, it wasn't like I was going to miss anything important. The drive to the clinic was quiet, the only sound was the soft music playing through the speakers. I took the time to try and figure out what was up with Stiles and me.

He had been really protective of me since the ride home from the party at Heather's. I loved it, don't get me wrong, but it was just odd. He wasn't even glancing at Lydia anymore whenever I was around them. I refused to let myself think that meant he had feelings for me, I wasn't going to get my hopes up.

I walked into the clinic with Stiles and saw Deaton was standing there, waiting for us. It was sort of creepy, but it was normal behavior for him. I couldn't help but flashback to when we all thought he was the alpha that bit Scott. I just wish we _knew_ what he was because he sure as hell wasn't completely human. He knew _way_ too much to be human.

"I'm sure the two of you are here because you've realized that the murders are sacrifices," he said. "You're the smart ones, the clever ones who find the patterns whenever others can't see them."

"Well, we're here for that and because I have a dilemma," Stiles said, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. "The FBI's here to _help_ my dad with these cases and I can't help but think it's unfair. They're going to think that he's incompetent because he doesn't know what's going on because it's supernatural."

"Everything that I've found in the murders points to Druids, a religious group that nothing's really known about but a lot of people have speculated about them over the years," Deaton explained. "It's like the case in England known as the 'Lindow Man.' An ancient body was discovered in 1984 with mistletoe in his stomach and the same threefold injuries of the murders that are happening here."

"You seem to know a lot of stuff that you haven't told us," Stiles points out, pursing his lips.

"I've spent the last 10 years trying to push something away, denying and lying about it has become a powerful habit of mine," Deaton said with a smile. Then he switched back into storyteller mode, "Whoever's killing these people isn't a Druid, they're just copying the old practices of people who should've known better.

"In Gaelic, the word Druid means 'Wise Oak' because they were close to nature and philosophers, not serial killers," Deaton finished right as Stiles' phone rang.

He talked for a few minutes before hanging up and telling us, "That was Lydia, she says that the music teacher has been taken now, too."

We ran to the music room as soon as we got the school and met up with Lydia. She played something on a phone that sounded like chanting. I leaned forward and listened to Deaton start talking.

"Each to the groups of three have its own purpose: virgins, healers, philosophers, and warriors," he was interrupted by Stiles who was looking at the teacher's desk.

"Hey guys, I found the connection with Kyle and the teacher. He was in the military," Stiles announced, holding up a picture for us to see. "With that being said, I think we should look out for Boyd because he's in ROTC, too."

"Mr. Harris was in the military," Lydia said, moving towards the door.

We all ran down the hallway to his classroom only to find it empty. His briefcase was still sitting on his desk along with the tests that he was grading. Everyone else was looking around while I glanced through the tests. I was actually looking for mine and when I found it, I got really confused.

"Okay, I know Mr. Harris doesn't like me, but I don't think I deserve a D on this quiz," I complained. "I actually studied for this quiz! Wait, this one has an R and this one has an H… Those aren't grades…."

I looked through the rest of the tests and found two A's and a C on a couple other papers. Deaton quickly put the papers into the order of "DARACH" like that made sense.

"What's a Darach?" Stiles asked, just as confused as I was.

"Darach means 'Dark Oak.' It's a Druid that went down the wrong path," Deaton answered.

Great, we just got rid of the Kanima and now we have a crazy dark Druid running around along with a pack of alphas. Oh great.

* * *

><p><strong>I put a lot of my personality into Scarlet's character and I hope she comes off as genuine.<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**I haven't had any Lily in the last few chapters so I added her to the beginning. I thought it would work adorably because Scarlet wasn't at the fight with Scott and Isaac. **

**I think the chapters are going to be longer as I get to the mid-season break because Starlet is going to start being a bigger component in the story.**

* * *

><p>Because I'd been spending so much time with the pack I'd neglected Lily severely. She and I decided to have a Friday night to reconnect. I had a cross country meet Saturday morning so I had to be out of her house at a completely <em>ungodly<em> hour, but I went anyway.

As soon as I got into her car, she attacked me with questions. "The only legitimate excuse for why you've been ignoring me is that you've joined the Amish mafia. We've been best friends our entire lives and tell each other everything so you'd better start telling, McCall."

I told her all about the sacrifices that were happening, the alpha pack, and the Darach. She seemed to be taking everything in stride as I told her, which was normal. She was calmer than I was when I told her Scott was a werewolf. I loved that she was like that, I needed some sort of stability in my hectic life.

"Oh wow, that's crazy even for Beacon Hills' standards," she exclaimed once we'd pulled in her driveway. "I don't understand how you're still alive to be honest."

I forgot how amazing it was to be around Lily. I felt like I was a normal girl in a normal town with nothing abnormal going on around me. I knew better than to eat a bunch of food, but whenever the Chinese takeout showed up I devoured it. I had a hole that only crab Rangoon could fill.

We fell asleep somewhere around twelve o'clock with the both of us sprawled across her bed. I had an alarm set for six that morning because the bus was leaving at seven. Whenever it went off, I'm pretty sure Lily actually started crying for a minute. I rolled my eyes before getting out of her bed and getting ready for the meet.

I had just finished French braiding my bangs back and pulling it into a ponytail when I made my way back into Lily's room. She was sitting up begrudgingly and putting her hair into a braid on the side of her head. She hated mornings with a passion, and I knew she really did miss me if she was going to drive me to school at this time.

"Have I ever told you that I love you, Lily Trent?" I asked, plopping down and laying my head on her lap. "Like, I might be in love with you. I think your lesbian is rubbing off onto me."

She actually growled at me before rolling me off of her and onto the floor. I jogged down the hallway to her kitchen and grabbed a cereal bar out of her cupboard. She and I and been friends for so long that I knew her house as well as I knew my own. I just acted like I was at my house whenever I was here and she did the same at Casa de McCall.

"We'd better get you to the school, I'd hate for the bus to leave you. I got up this early for a reason," Lily said as she grabbed her keys off of the counter. "Get your ass into my car and let's go."

* * *

><p>"What the hell did you let happen to my brother, Lahey?" I screeched when I saw Scott's side.<p>

"I didn't _let_ anything happen to him, I had my hands full with other alphas," he said, keeping his distance from me. "The last thing I want is to piss you off."

"You had your hands full with an alpha, as in you were fighting with the entire pack?" I asked in disbelief. "Why the hell wasn't I notified that you all were going to fight an entire alpha pack? Are you all fucking stupid?"

"Okay, I know you're mad and everything, but don't make a scene," Stiles said, quieting me down as a few people started to look over at the group of us. "The last thing we need is for the entire cross country team to think you're crazy."

We all piled onto the bus and I situated myself in the seat in front of Stiles and Scott's. I sat somewhat patiently while Scott told us everything that happened last night. I was pretty chill until he told me that Derek was dead.

"Wait, hold the phone, Derek's _dead_?!" I asked, sitting up higher on my haunches. "Are you sure?"

He was about to nod when we hit a pothole and he clutched his midsection with a pained moan. I stood up and moved to sit back with them. I was basically on Stiles' lap, but it wasn't romantic in anyway. I had a strong mommy-gene that meant I had to take care of everyone around me, or maybe it was a McCall-gene…

"Lift your shirt and let me see what's happening down there," I whispered, scooting further back on Stiles so I could see more of his injury. "Why isn't it healing?"

"It's because it's from an alpha," he breathed out. "It takes longer for their wounds to heal."

"Then why are Isaac and Boyd's already healed?" Stiles as the question that was running through my head. "They got batted around like kitty toys last night, too."

I could see that Scott didn't know the answer so I quickly changed the subject. "Ethan's sitting up there with Danny. He isn't going to hurt him, is he?"

"I don't think he's going to do anything with this many witnesses," Scott forced out. "I'm hoping that I won't have to do anything with this many people around either."

"Does the same go for Isaac and Boyd? We all know how much of a hothead Isaac can be," I said, forcing Stiles over so I could sit in between both of them instead of on Stiles' lap.

"If they do something, I'll stop them," Scott answered after thinking for a second.

We'd been on the road for a while, but the bus hadn't moved. I was about to ask why when Isaac announced, "There's a jackknifed trailer a few miles up the road so traffic's at a standstill."

The news resulted in a chorus of groans from the entire bus including Coach Finstock. That meant we were going to have to spend even more time on the bus while Scott seriously needed Deaton's attention. The blood was soaking through his shirt and making it stick to his body which was _not_ a good sign.

Suddenly his head perked up and he focused in on Isaac and Boyd. I looked up at them and saw that Boyd's claws were extended and he was staring straight at Ethan. Stiles stood up quickly and lifted me with him so Scott could go up and try to talk Boyd down.

I was chewing my nails into the quick whenever Stiles took my hands in his. He held them tightly and looked me square in the eyes, trying his best to comfort me. The last thing that he and I wanted to happen was for me to have a panic attack on this bus.

"Hey, everything's going to be okay. We've all been through much worse than this and came out alive, right?" he whispered before pulling me into a hug. "Everything's going to work itself out."

"I hope you're right," I whispered against his chest, breathing in his scent and letting it calm me. "I really hope you're right."

After he let me go, we watched Scott intensely as he whispered tersely with the other betas. Whatever Isaac and Scott were saying seemed to calm Boyd back down because his claws receded and the tension left his body. Scott limped painfully back to our seat and I moved back up to mine so he could have a bit more room.

"Crisis averted?" Stiles asked after Scott sat back down beside him.

After he nodded, Stiles continued, "That's good because we've got another problem. Ethan keeps checking his phone, like, every five minutes. It's like he's waiting for something, like a message or a signal of some sort. I don't know, something evil though, I can tell. I have a very perceptive for evil, you both know that."

"That's true, he did realize that Jackson was the Kanima and that Peter was a total wackado," I agreed with a nod. "If he is waiting for a signal, it can't be for something good."

Stiles pulled his phone out of his pocket and soon enough I heard Danny's phone go off. I rolled my eyes at his stupidity, Danny liked Ethan so there was no way he was going to pry into his life like that. Well, I didn't think so, but then I remembered how annoying Stiles Stilinski really could be.

Whenever I saw Ethan turn his head around really fast, I ducked down into my seat to hide from him. Judging by the groan that came from the seat behind mine, Scott and Stiles followed in my footsteps.

I heard Stiles mutter under his breath from behind, "Well, that wasn't very subtle."

Eventually I heard Stiles' phone go off and the message read "_Someone close to him is sick. Might not make it through the night."_

"Ennis?" Scott whispered after he read the text.

"If he's still alive, maybe that means that…" Stiles trailed off as he realized what he was implying.

"Derek may still be alive?" I finished for him breathily.

I heard the Coach shouting at some kid that he couldn't puke and it made me realize that we had started moving. Then, just as I thought that, the bus stopped moving again and I groaned. We were never going to make it to this meet.

"Now the rest of you, don't think we're going to miss this meet just because there's a slight traffic jam, a minor tornado warning, and Jared. We're going to make this thing. Nothing is going to stop us!" Coach Finstock told all of us, it was almost like he was trying to convince himself as much as he was us.

"There's a food exit about half a mile up, you know? We could stop an-" Stiles tried, but Coach quickly cut him off.

"We're not going to stop."

After they bickered for a little while longer, Stiles finally realized, after more than enough blows of Coach Finstock's whistle, that the bus wasn't going to stop. He was muttering under his breath about how much he hated him when he relaxed back against the bus seat.

I looked over at Scott and asked, "Have you called Deaton yet?"

"I've tried, but it keeps going to his voicemail," Scott answered, holding onto his side as pain wracked his body again.

"Call Lydia and Allison," I said to Stiles. When he looked at me questioningly, I explained, "They're a few cars back, they've been following us for hours. Let's just say that neither of them are Nancy Drew material, okay?"

He smirked before dialing a number and pressing the phone to his ear. While he was talking to them, I looked over at Scott and tried to see how good he was doing. He was really pale and his forehead was beaded with sweat, I knew he was in a lot of pain. It didn't make sense, I've seen him heal from stuff a lot worse.

"Okay, so I'm going to try and convince Coach to stop up at the rest stop. We've got to try and do something for Scott's wound," Stiles said after he hung up his phone.

While he went up to the front of the bus, I went back to sit with Scott. "How you holding up, Scotty? You hate it whenever I say I'm the hotter twin, but there's no contest right now. You can't let me win this easy, it's not as sweet a victory."

He tried his best to smile, but I could see that it took too much energy. "I'm breathing, but that's about it. I'll be okay, I've lived through worse."

A horrible smell broke through the entire bus and I knew Stiles had something to do with it. When I looked up to the front of the bus, I saw that Jared had puked everywhere. I groaned and tried my best to help Scott get out of the bus, avoiding the puke puddles, and out onto the cement of the rest stop.

"Smooth move, Stilinski, but can you help me?" I asked when I saw Stiles standing with Lydia and Allison. "We may be twins, but he's a lot bigger and heavier than I am."

Stiles helped me take Scott into one of the bathrooms and sit him down against the wall. I sat behind him and let him lean back against my chest. I wasn't going to let him sit here alone, he was already in pain and the last thing he needed was to be pressed against something hard. Plus I couldn't bear to let go of him right now, I wanted to keep him closer to me.

I felt Allison lift his shirt so she could look at the wound on his torso. "Oh my god, why didn't you tell us you were hurt this badly?"

"Sorry," Scott smiled sheepishly.

She stood up and walked over to stand with Lydia and Stiles, but I stayed put. I was running my nails over his scalp and whispering in his ear. It wasn't anything important, I honestly think it was more to calm me down than him. I couldn't lose him, I loved him too much. The thought made tears cloud my vision for a couple of seconds before I blinked them away. I had to be stronger than that, I had to be the strong twin for once.

Allison came back over to us and dropped down to her knees in front of Scott. She had a needle in one hand and a lighter in the other, sterilizing it. I realized that she was going to manually stitch him up and I wracked my mind for her reasoning behind it.

Lydia seemed to see the confusion on my face so she explained, "I think the wound is so bad because it's in his mind. He blames himself for Derek's death so he's keeping himself from healing."

I shook my head and kissed the back of his head. It was just like my brother to be so guilty about something that he wouldn't let himself heal.

I see Allison struggling with threading the needle, but I'm too focused on Scott to worry about her. His breathing has gone from short and choppy to long and far between. I know that's not a good sign so I press a kiss to the back of his head and start rubbing his back.

"Approach the situation clinically and unemotionally," Allison muttered under her breath before finally getting the thread through the needle. "Yes! Thank you."

While she's sewing him up, I felt Scott lose consciousness. I tried my best to not start freaking out, I trusted Allison to fix him. She cared almost as much about him as I did, she wasn't going to let him die without try her hardest to save him. When she was finished, I started saying his name.

Scott snapped awake and said, "It's my fault."

I was all out crying whenever I helped Allison bring Scott back outside. We walked over to Lydia and Stiles and stopped, letting Scott stand on his own. I pressed my face against the bend of Stiles' neck and tried to pull myself together. He held onto me tightly and rubbed his hands up and down my back.

"Scott's fine and you're fine," he whispered in my ear, his lips brushing my skin just a bit. "I told you everything was going to be okay. I figured that after all this time you would've realized that I'm always right about everything."

I heard loud noises and pulled away from Stiles to see a group of people gathering around something. I wrapped an arm around Scott's waist and helped him make his way shakily over to them. I saw Allison frown at me taking him from her, but I didn't care, he was _my_ brother.

Did I mention that I got insanely territorial whenever someone I loved was hurt? Because I totally do.

"Lahey, leave him alone!" Coach Finstock screeched at Isaac, but he ignored him.

He was fighting with Ethan, beating his face in as the creep smiled. He was trying to make him angry so he would expose himself as a werewolf. His temper was awful, he even pushed Danny away from him when he tried to get to Ethan.

"Isaac!" Scott screamed, taking Isaac's arm in his hands and making him step back.

* * *

><p>Once everything was normal again, we got back on the bus. Allison and Lydia were going to ride to the meet with us because Allison's car ran out of gas. She tried to sit with Scott, but then saw my face and sat in the seat across from us. I wasn't trying to be a bitch, I was just protective over him. And I was trying to be a bitch, but whatevs.<p>

"You know, some cultures use human sacrifice to prepare for battle," Lydia said from her spot beside Stiles. I was too preoccupied by Scott to even be upset about that fact.

We all were thinking what Stiles put into words, "So we've got alpha werewolves against dark druids. What the hell do we do about it?"

While he and Lydia debated, I turned to Scott. "If you ever scare me like that again, you won't have to worry about alphas. I'll be the one to kill you."

He wrapped his arms around me and held me close. "I love you, too, sis."

* * *

><p><strong>I had to add some McCall sibling moments to this chapter. It fit perfectly :)<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**This is actually the longest chapter I've written for any of my stories ever because I love this episode. I also have a lot of Starlet moments in it, some of them are subtle little things like holding hands and hugging, but others are pretty intense.**

* * *

><p>We'd only been on the bus for about ten minutes when we pulled up in front of a seedy looking motel. Scott was almost completely healed now and I knew that I needed to thank Allison. She was the reason he thought that he was getting better so he did. Yeah, that's really confusing, but I still found Allison.<p>

As we filed out of the bus, I grabbed her arm. "Thank you for saving Scott. I'm sorry for being such a bitch to you, I just get really protective over him when he's hurt. It's not an attractive trait to have, but I can't help it."

She hugged me from the side and said, "It's okay, Scarlet. I understand why you were like that, I'm the same way whenever someone hurts the people I care about."

I turned back around and followed Stiles, drumming my hands on his back as we went. I was anxious to get off of this bus again, I hated being on them. I finally got out and took in a deep breath of fresh air that didn't smell like the puke dust that was spread all over.

"Oh, wow, this is seriously one of the shittiest motels I've ever seen in my life," I said, leaning against Scott.

"I don't know, I've seen worse places," he laughed, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and hugging me close to him. "It's only for one night."

"Where the hell have you seen worse places?!" Stiles asked in surprise. "It's like you can smell all the pornos that have been made here."

"Or all the hookers who've turned more than a couple tricks," I added, giggling.

"The meet has been postponed until tomorrow and this motel was the only one with enough vacant rooms and a lack of judgment when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates," Coach Finstock said. "You're staying two to a room and I warn you, don't do any sexual perversions in these rooms, you little deviants."

I giggled under my breath when he glanced over at Scott, Stiles, and I. I had a sneaking suspicion that I was going to room with them regardless of what Coach said. I wasn't going to let Scott out of my sight tonight because this motel made goosebumps pop up on my arms. There was something off about it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

* * *

><p>I was laying on my back on Stiles' bed beside him as Scott did the same on his bed. We were debating who we thought was behind all of the human sacrifices.<p>

"I have a list of ten people who could possibly be behind it, well nine I guess because two of them are Derek," Stiles said, holding up his hand and ticking off the choices:

"First there's Mr. Harris, I mean, just because he's missing doesn't mean he's dead. Plus that guy has something seriously wrong with him."

"Then there's Cora Hale, Derek's little sister. No one really knows anything about her and she's Derek sister, there's something messed up about that family. Peter and Derek both have anger issues and I'm sure Cora's the same."

"Deaton, I don't really like the Obi Wan thing he's got going on. It freaks me out. Plus he ignored your calls all day today which is a little bit sketchy."

"Who's that?" Scott asked, making me laugh and close my eyes because I knew Stiles was about to teach him a thing or two. "I swear, if we make it home I'll finally watch Star Wars with you, okay?"

Stiles rolled his eyes in exasperation and continued on with his list, "As much as I hate to say it, there's a possibility that it's Lydia. She was totally controlled by Peter and had no idea, it could be like history repeating itself or something."

"Or it could be someone at school," I said, kicking my feet up into the air and stretching my arms up to touch my toes. "Matt was the Kanima Master and killed a ton of people last year without us figuring it out for a while."

"Actually, I said he was responsible for all the killings _way_ before we actually found out. You all just ignore me," Stiles scoffed, pushing my arm with his hand and almost making me fall into the floor.

Scott rolled off of the bed and made his way into the bathroom, leaving Stiles and I alone in the room. I rolled over onto my side and face him, seeing that he'd done the same thing. I had my bottom lip between my teeth as we just stared about each other. Something between us changed in that moment, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

"You're really beautiful, Scarlet," he whispered, reaching out and tracing my cheekbone with his finger. "And your jaw's even which is something to celebrate."

I laughed and pushed myself up into a sitting position. "Shut up, Scott's jaw isn't _that_ uneven!"

He laughed and pushed himself up to his feet. "I'm going to go grab something from the vending machine. Do you want anything?"

"Yeah, I want some Skittles, please!" I said, batting my eyelashes at him teasingly.

He winked at me before heading out of the room. I decided that I was going to go find something that didn't smell like smoke to wash off with. I smelled like sweat, blood, and puke dust which was not an appealing scent for anyone.

"Hey Scott, I'm going to go find some more towels!" I shouted before making my way out to the motel clerk.

I met up with Lydia who was also on the hunt for towels so we walked together. We walked inside and I saw that it was just as cheery as the rest of the establishment.

"We need new towels because you're supposedly 'smoke free' rooms reek of nicotine," Lydia said, trying her best to get the woman behind the counter's attention.

She turned around and I saw that she had a tube in her neck from smoking. I looked anywhere but the woman and my eyes landed on the number 198 that was framed and hanging on the office wall.

"Why is that number framed back there?" I asked, interrupting Lydia's rant about the smell of smoke surrounding the motel.

The woman looked at me and smiled a creepy little smile that sent a shiver down my spine. "It's sort of an inside joke for the Glenn Capri and all of its workers. In the 40 years that it's been in business, the most suicide have occurred in the motel's walls. We're up to 198 and still counting."

After I was back in the room with Lydia and Allison, Lydia started going over statistics. "Over the span of 40 years, that breaks down to an average of 4.95 suicides a year which isn't completely unexpected."

"It's not unexpected, but it's still super weird that they have the number freakin' framed in their front office! I mean, who does that?" I asked in disbelief before grabbing Allison's deodorant and perfume to try and cover my _stench_ since we didn't find any clean towels. "That's weird, even for our lives."

"With all of those suicides, there's more than a few methods. Hanging, throat cutting, pill popping, both barrels of a shotgun in the mouth," Lydia said, ticking them off of her fingers.

She cuts off quickly and her attention turns to the air vent over the bed. I look at Allison and see that she's just as confused by Lydia's actions as I am. The only thing I see is the silver streamer showing that there's air flowing through it. Suddenly they stop and Lydia gasps loudly.

"Lydia, what's wrong? I'm sure the air's on a timer or something and it'll kick back on in a minute," I said, walking up to her and seeing the pure fear on her face.

"You all didn't hear that? You didn't hear them talking and the _gunshots_?" she said in a wet whisper like she was trying to keep back tears.

She then runs out of the room with me and Allison on her heels. She pushed the door open and we all see that the room is filled with construction equipment and nothing else. Especially no dead people or guns. Lydia's eyes dart over to the wood paneling on the walls and her face contorts into a mask of horror.

"We need to leave this motel right now!" she exclaims, forcing herself to turn around and look at Allison and me instead of whatever's on the wall. "It's not safe here."

"Wait a second, let's calm down and look at this rationally, okay?" Allison said, taking Lydia's shoulders in her hands. "The deaths were suicides, not murders, and it's not like this place is haunted, right?"

"Maybe it is, maybe the couple killed themselves in this room and now it's under construction to scrap the brain matter off of the paneling!" Lydia shrieked, her eyes filling up with hysterical tears.

"Let's not freak out too badly, Lydia, okay? Let's go talk to the desk clerk about the couple," I said, taking her hand in mine and walking out of the room. "She's bound to have the answers that we need."

We all went down to the office only to find a sign on the door that said it'd be back open at 6AM. I slammed my hand against the glass with a groan before looking inside. There was enough light for me to see the walls and the framed number by the desk. The number wasn't 198 anymore, it had bumped itself up to 201.

"Hey you guys, the number on the weird suicide population sign has changed. It was 198 earlier and now it says 201," I said, trying to get both of their attention. "See, look!"

"How has it gone up by three in less than an hour? There's no way," Lydia said slowly.

"Unless the deaths haven't happened yet…" Allison trailed off as she realized what she was implying.

"I'm going to go check on Scott and Stiles. I'll meet up with you guys in a bit," I said, running back up to the room that all three of us were sharing and praying that they were both alright.

I was about to burst into the room when arms wrapped around my back. I was about to scream when I recognized the red of his sweater. I pulled out of Stiles' grip and turned so I could hug him.

"I have to tell you and Scott something, but I want to tell both of you so let's go inside," I said, taking is hand in mine and opening up the door.

Scott's eyes are wild when he looks up at both of us, almost like he's seen something terrible happen. I let go of Stiles' hand and make my way over to him. His head is shaking back and forth as he looks back out at the parking lot.

"Scotty, what's wrong?" I asked breathlessly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just thought I saw something outside, but I didn't," he said, but I could still hear the scared edge of his voice. He must've seen my skepticism because he said, "I promise there's nothing to worry about. I'm fine."

I nodded slowly and pulled my phone out of my hoodie pocket when it vibrated. Lydia texted me and said _Bring Stiles up to our room, just Stiles, not Scott. Don't tell him what's going on just yet._

I grabbed Stiles' hand and turned to Scott, "Why don't you figure out what's up with you while we go do something? I have my phone if you need me, okay? Please don't do anything stupid and reckless."

* * *

><p>"So this motel has a tally of people that've killed themselves?" Stiles asked in disbelief. "Do you think that's why all the werewolves are acting so weird? Like, Scott is straight up staring off into space, Boyd slammed his hand through a vending machine, and god only knows where Isaac and Ethan are right now."<p>

"I don't know, but I want to leave," Lydia said, walking towards the door. Then she pulled open the nightstand and said, "Either that or I want to do an exorcism of something to keep us safe from the psycho werewolves."

"Maybe we were drawn to this motel on purpose… I mean the number in the office went up my three and that's the number of sacrifices that the Darach takes," Stiles stated.

Then he moved over to Lydia and took the bible from her. For a second I thought he was literally going to start praying or blessing the room, but instead he pulled a piece of paper out of the bible. There ended up being three newspaper clippings inside all about the suicides that happened in that room.

"Maybe every room has the clippings of all the suicides in their bibles," I said slowly. "Sort of like a catalog or something."

"That's great, most motels have mints on the pillows this one has a catalog of dead people," Stiles snarked, tossing the bible onto the bed. "This is a real classy establishment they've got here."

"If that's true, I want to go see what's in the bible in room 217," Lydia said, leaving before any of us could respond to her.

The door ended up being locked even though it wasn't an hour earlier. I heard something buzzing inside and realized that it sounded a whole lot like a saw. Then I remembered that there was a ton of construction tools inside and something told me that we _had_ to get inside that room right now.

"We have to get inside! That sounds like a SKILSAW," Allison said quickly.

Stiles used his strength and slammed into the door and it actually opened. Not that Stiles wasn't strong, I just didn't think he had the brute strength the knock a locked door open. I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth and tried to calm myself down from how much it turned me on. Oh Lord Jesus, I needed to reign myself in before I embarrassed myself.

"Scarlet, we could use your help!" Lydia shouted, making me run inside and see that Stiles was fighting with Ethan.

I found the plug and followed it to the wall. I ran over to the plugin and yanked it out just as it was about to cut Stiles into two pieces. I heard him let out a thankful breath before relaxing against the floor.

"Nope, we've still got a problem!" Allison shouted, running over to Ethan as he tried to tear himself apart with his own claws. "A little help here, guys!"

Lydia grabbed his other arm and they struggled to stop him from ripping himself apart. He hit his hand against the heater during the struggle and the sudden burn seemed to knock him out of his trance. He pulled himself out of Lydia and Allison's grip and ran a nervous hand through his hair.

"I don't know what I was doing before you all ask," was all he said before he tore out of the room faster than possible.

We all followed him and stopped in the middle of the cement walkway outside of the rooms. I grabbed Stiles' hand just in case Ethan decided to attack one of _us_ with his claws this time.

"I wasn't lying when I said I had no clue how I ended up in there like that. The last thing I remember was being with Danny in our room," Ethan said, leaving out any incriminating details.

"You know, you could be a little bit nicer considering we all just saved your life," I said sassily before I could stop myself. "Just saying."

"You probably shouldn't have," Ethan snapped before heading back to his room.

* * *

><p>Allison and Lydia left to go find Scott which left me and Stiles alone in our room again. He was still trying his best to convince me that Lydia was behind all of this stuff, but I was skeptical. I also fought that she <em>wasn't<em> possessed by Peter and all that other shit, but that's beside the point. I was pretty sure she wasn't behind the sacrifices.

"Aren't you, like, in love with her? Why do you want her to be behind all of this so badly?" I finally asked, sitting up and crossing my legs.

"I'm not in love with her anymore, I don't think I have been for a while. I mean, I still care about her a lot, but I think it's becoming more of a friendship thing," he said, running a hand through his hair.

I wanted to hug him tightly to me and kiss him, but I held myself tight. "Oh, that's an interesting turn of events. I'll keep that in mind."

As soon as that left my mouth, our eyes locked and something passed between us. It was the same feeling that happened earlier when we were laying with each other. It was unfamiliar but it made my entire body feel like it was charged with electricity and I kind of like it.

He brought his hand up and cupped my jaw, leaning his body into mine and making the electric feeling intensify. We were less than an inch away from each other when the door flung open and sent us springing away from each other.

"I hear a baby crying and I think someone's trying to drown it in Boyd and Isaac's room," Lydia shouted, not noticing how close we were to each other in her hysterics. "I don't know how I know, but I know something's about to happen that we have to stop!"

I jump up and run to their room, partly because I'm afraid for them and partly because I'm scared of what just happened between Stiles and I. The room was dark so I flipped the switch on and ran into the bathroom where I heard water running. Lydia and Stiles were behind me when I screamed.

Boyd was in the water with a safe on his chest holding him under the water. I saw Stiles trying to pull the stopper out of the tub, but Boyd had wedged something inside that he couldn't pull free. He ended up losing his balance and falling back into the wall heater and I heard him hiss when he touched it.

"The burning jars them out of their trances!" he shouted, making me jump and look up at him instead of at Boyd. "What can burn underwater?"

"Nothing can burn underwater, it would extinguish itself," I said, freaking out and trying to move the safe even though I knew it was impossible.

"A road flare can burn in the water and the bus should have a set of them on it," Lydia said, and Stiles took off running to grab them.

While we were waiting, I heard someone whimpering from under one of the beds. I left Lydia with Boyd while I went to check it out. I took a deep breath and dropped to my knees before looking underneath the hanging comforter to find the source of the noise. Isaac was cowering underneath it and slid back into the shadows whenever the light hit him. Even if I was a little pissed at him, I hated seeing him so afraid. I wanted to crawl under there with him, but I figured being in a small space with him again wasn't such a good idea considering what happened the last time…

Stiles quickly came back into the room and reached underneath the water to burn Boyd. I heard him roar and saw Stiles walk back in with the flare still in his hands. I crawled under the bed reluctantly and reached the flare out towards Isaac. He shied away from it at first, and I apologized before pressing it to his arm.

While they were recovering, the rest of us went to find Allison and Scott. We found Allison and started looking around the motel for my brother. I was the first to find him and I didn't like what I saw when I did. He was standing in the middle of something wet with a flare clutched in his hands that was burning brightly.

"Scott?" I asked, walking up to him and the stench of gasoline burned my nose. "Are you standing in gas?"

"There's no hope," he says. "There's no hope for me or for Derek."

"Scott, Derek's not your fault!" Allison pleaded with him, tears obvious in her voice as she, Lydia, and Stiles caught up to me.

"No matter what I do, people always end up getting hurt and dying. Killing myself is the best thing that I could do for everyone," he said in a voice that was the embodiment of sadness.

"Scott, that's no true! I can't live without you in my life!" I cried, tears coursing down my cheeks. "Please don't do this!"

"You're wrong, Scarlet. Everyone's life was better before I got the bite, it was better when I wasn't anyone special. Whenever I sucked at lacrosse, and wasn't popular or special in anyway. It's better to be no one," he said. "No one at all."

I didn't realize that I was clutching Stiles' hand for dear life until he moved forward and I went with him. "You are someone, you're my best friend and you're our brother."

He let go of me and stepped forward into the puddle of gas with me close on his heels. I swallowed thickly and took Stiles' hand back in mine and locked our fingers, "If you're going, you're going to take both of us with you."

Stiles reached out and pried the flare out of his hand and threw it to the side before we both pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. Suddenly someone slammed into us and knocked us out of the gasoline puddle just as it ignited behind us. I hear Scott hiss and know that he ended up getting burned and it jarred him out of his trance.

Stiles stood up and pulled Lydia and I to our feet before helping Scott up as well. I let them talk privately for a second before hugging a sobbing Allison and a barely held together Lydia. The other's arms wrap around both of us and we ended up having a group hug in the middle of the flaming parking lot.

Isaac and Boyd joined us and we all decided that there was no way in hell we were all going to sleep in that hotel. We all got onto the bus and I forced Stiles into a seat before laying back against his chest and falling asleep within a few minutes. I was wrecked after all the stuff that had happened today.

* * *

><p>I woke up to the sound of people filing up onto the bus and Finstock blowing his whistle. I groaned and sat up, well sort of, I was mostly leaning back onto Stiles and still curled up into a ball. I noticed that Stiles had draped his hoodie over me and was watching me sleep.<p>

I felt my cheeks turning pink as I remembered what happened between us last night. I sat up straight but stayed as close to him as I could, leaving his jacket draped over both of us. What? He was still cute.

"I don't even want to know," Coach said when he saw all of us sleeping on the bus. "The meet's been cancelled so we're all heading home, this trip was a bust."

"Thank you for saving my life," Ethan told Scott, making me turn to see what was going on.

"You know, I was the one who almost had my face ripped off by a power saw," Stiles said, but I placed a hand on his stomach and made him be quiet. "Never mind, go ahead and thank Scott for it."

"Because you saved me, I'm going to tell you something. Derek's still alive, but because he killed Ennis he has to either join the alpha pack or they'll hunt him down and kill him," he finished like Stiles hadn't even spoke.

"Coach, can I see you whistle for a second?" Lydia asked, making me squint at the sudden change of subject.

He raised a brow but looked too tired to question it. He handed the whistle to Lydia before flopping down in a seat with a tired sigh.

Lydia cupped the whistle and blew a big breath into it before pulling her hand back. She opened it up and showed us that it had purple dust inside it. Scott coughed a bit and I realized what it was.

"The whistle is filled with wolfsbane?" I asked. "That must be how the Darach caused the werewolves hallucinations."

"If that's the case," Stiles took the whistle from Lydia and tossed it out the window. I heard the wheels drive over it and effectively crush it. "I think that's the best option."

"You owe me a new whistle, Stilinski!"

* * *

><p><strong>This is my favorite chapter that I've written! I hope you guys think so, too. <strong>


	10. Chapter 10

I was asleep in my bed when Scott burst into my room. I groaned when I saw that he had Isaac with him because that was never a good sign. It usually meant something werewolfy was happening and I had no chance of getting more sleep.

"What do you all want? It's freakin' midnight on a Tuesday," I groaned, pushing up into a sitting position and putting my glasses on. Scott had asthma before the bite and I had shitty eyesight. "This better be important."

"Uhm, I think the next group that the Darach is sacrificing is going to be healers. There are already two missing doctors and mom's sort of a healer, too. I mean, she saved Danny's life tonight with some sort of Pulp Fiction stuff and it was really cool," Scott said rapidly. "I want you to come sleep in her room with her so we can make sure you're both okay."

I knew better than to argue with him so I just held up my arms. I wasn't going to walk all the way to mom's room, one of them were going to pack me there if they wanted me there so badly. I heard Isaac laugh before lifting me up and cradling me to his chest. What? I knew how to work my boys, okay?

Isaac laid me next to my mom before sitting in the floor with Scott in a chair. I just sat my glasses on mom's nightstand and went back to sleep. I would deal with the Darach and the sacrifices in the morning.

* * *

><p>I felt someone shaking me so I sat up with slowly. I slid my glasses onto my face and looked over to see that it was mom. She had a happy grin on her face and pointed over to where the boys had been watching over us when I went to sleep last night.<p>

They were watching over us alright. Isaac had fallen asleep with his head leaning against mom's dresser and his mouth hanging open while Scott was sprawled in the chair. I cleared my throat loudly and watched both of them jump to their feet.

"I thought you were on watch last!" Scott said to Isaac when he realized that they were both asleep.

Isaac looked around like a confused puppy and rubbed the back of his neck. "Uhm, well, I might've been on watch last."

I laughed and stood up, walking over to Isaac and wrapping my arms around his waist. He and I had made up since the incident in the janitor's closet. I guess me saving his life made him feel like a dick so he apologized and made me cookies which are my weak spot. I loved them and he knew that.

"My brave protectors," mom smiled after Scott explained to her why we were all sleeping in her room with her. "Thank you, boys, but you're going to be late for school if you don't hurry."

I let go of Isaac and made my way down the hall to my bedroom to get ready. If I thought sharing a bathroom with just Scott was hard, sharing one with Scott _and_ Isaac was even harder. I literally was smushed in between them curling my hair while they brushed their teeth and got ready. I was actually doing my makeup while Isaac was in the shower, but I figured we'd figure out a rhythm soon enough or kill each other, whichever came first.

I heard a familiar horn honk outside and ran out to meet up with Lily. I slid into her passenger seat and heard her let out a whistle at my outfit. My top and skirt had a little strip of skin exposed that Scott already scolded me over. I didn't even care anymore, it wasn't like I was going to school naked or anything so…

"Is this outfit to excite a certain twitchy boy with a talent for researching random werewolf related things?" Lily asked, driving towards school. "And did you let your mother see you before you left?"

I knew my cheeks were turning pink even if that wasn't why I was wearing this outfit. "No and no! I'm just happy that it's kind of warm outside and am celebrating not dying in a fire at a seedy motel because my brother and his pack went batshit crazy."

She made a noise that told me she didn't fully believe me but wasn't going to pry. I got out of the car and walked into the school with her arm twisted with mine, but we soon parted ways for our classes. By the time I made it to Harris' class, I was surprised to see Miss Blake standing in the front of the classroom.

I hadn't really thought much about her, but something about her was definitely off now that I did. All these killings started when the alphas got here, sure, but they also started when she started teaching her. I guess it could just be a coincidence, but I didn't really believe in those. From my experiences lately, everything was connected to each other especially in Beacon Hills.

"Okay, now that you're here I can tell you both," Stiles said as soon as I sat down in the seat across from his. "According to my dad, the ER attendant wasn't killed the same way as the others. He was asphyxiated."

"If he died a different way, maybe that means he's not a sacrifice," I said, tapping my chin and crossing my legs. "Maybe that means that Dr. Hilliard is still alive."

Scott's phone went off in his pocket and I quickly coughed to cover the sound. Miss Blake didn't even look over at us, she was too busy looking down at her phone with a goofy smile on her lips. She must be talking to a man, that was the only thing that could make a girl look like that. Hmm, I wonder who she's getting it on with.

"I'm coming, I'll be right there!" Scott cried into the phone. "That was Deaton, he says he thinks he's going to be the next one taken, and I have to save him."

He was up and out of the room before I could even try to talk him out of it. Miss Blake didn't even look up from her phone when he ran off. That was good teaching there, buddy, fantastic teaching actually. Oh wow, I've been spending _way_ too much time around Stiles, I was starting to sound like him.

"I'm going to call my dad and tell him," Stiles said as he pressed his phone to his ear. "Then you and I are going after Scott. He can't do this alone."

* * *

><p>By the time we got the clinic with Scott, I knew Deaton was long gone. Sherriff Stilinski said that he would do everything he could to find Deaton, but we all needed to go back to school. I knew as well as the others did that he wasn't going to find Deaton without our help, but he didn't know that. It was impossible to find a man taken by a Darach when you didn't know what a Darach even was.<p>

I grabbed Stiles' hand and drug him somewhere private with Scott on my heels. It must've been twin-telepathy because Scott told him what I was thinking. We actually did that more often than you'd think.

"We have to tell him about the Darach, there's no way he's going to find Deaton without knowing about it," he said, trying his best to ease Stiles into the idea.

Stiles actually took a step back from us. "Are you crazy? Your mom couldn't look you in the eye for weeks when she found out what you were. And you just showed her, imagine if I told my dad that I've kept this secret for over a year! He'd never talk to me again!"

"Yes, but mom got over it and now we're all a whole lot closer because there aren't any secrets," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing. "He's your dad, he's going to love you no matter what."

He pulled out of my grip with a frown. "I don't think you get a say in this, Scarlet. Your mom knows everything and you didn't have to tell her. You're not even really that helpful most of the time."

I recoiled quickly and crossed my arms over my chest, blinking back tears. "I'm sorry that I'm not as good at solving murders as you or as strong as Scott, but I'm just as involved in this as you are and I try as hard as I can."

I turned and walked back into the front and tried my best to not start crying. It was one of my biggest fears that I wasn't good enough to be part of the pack and Stiles basically just confirmed that.

I heard the bell above the door ring so I wiped my face and went back into the lobby. I was being a baby and that wasn't what anyone needed right now. I couldn't worry about my hurt feelings when Deaton was missing and possibly dead. I saw Ms. Morrell standing by the Sherriff, begging him to find her brother. After he promised to try his best, he left and she came up to Scott and Stiles.

"We all know that there's no way he's going to find Alan without knowing everything, no one in law enforcement is," she said. "You're going to have to use the one person who may actually have the ability to seek out the supernatural if you have any hope of saving him from the Darach."

"Lydia," I said as everything fell into place. When Scott and Stiles looked at me questioningly, I just shrugged and said, "Maybe, I don't know. I'm too stupid to be part of the Scooby Gang, right?"

* * *

><p>If it wasn't for Scott forcing me to ride with Stiles, I would've walked the three miles back to school. I sat in the backseat with my headphones in. I didn't want him to know how badly he'd hurt my feelings. I knew I was being childish, but he and I had gotten so close to each other at the motel and now he didn't think I was important. It was a very hurtful situation, okay?<p>

When we pulled up to the school, I saw that everyone was filing out. There wasn't any sign of a fire or anything so I got out of the car and slipped into the school with Stiles on my heels. I saw that a girl standing with Lydia, looking at her menacingly in only the way a Hale could so I knew it had to be Derek's sister Cora.

"Derek said that he wants you to stop seeing Aiden," Cora said, threatening Lydia next. "If I catch you two together again, I'm going to rip your tongue out of your head."

"Honey, don't worry about me. I've had my fair share of crazy exes, or did he forget to mention to you my homicidal lizard boyfriend that _he_ bit and changed?" Lydia asked, placing her hands on hips. "I think I've got it under control."

Do you see why I seriously love this girl? She's a firecracker.

Cora's hand reached out and wrapped around Lydia's wrist, making Stiles leap into action. "Let her go."

Cora groaned and stepped away from Lydia, letting her break away and rush over to me. I took her hand in mine and held onto her tightly. We were both human, well I was human and she was whatever the hell she was, but we weren't exactly fit to fight a werewolf. I mean, we're both in skirts and heels right now. Stiles headed towards the chemistry classroom and we all shrugged before following him. It's not like there was anything else we had to do right now.

He set his backpack onto one of the desks and pulled out a freakin' Ouija board. I rolled my eyes and sat beside Lydia at one of the lab tables. Cora sat across from us and Stiles stood between Lydia and Cora. For someone who was so self-righteous, he was a clueless idiot sometimes.

"We're going to find my brother's boss with a toy made by Parker Brothers?" I asked in exasperation. Then I muttered, "And I'm the stupid one of us…"

"I never said you were stupid, Scarlet!" he tried to apologize, but I held up a hand. "Okay, fine, but we're not done talking about this."

"Can we finish this? I have other things to do," Cora interrupted, making me want to hug her.

Stiles held up Deaton's keys and waited for Lydia to hold her hand out. "We're going to try Psychometry, you're going to hold these and try to connect to him or find some facts about him or something like that."

"I'm not a psychic," Lydia pointed out with pursed lips.

She jumped whenever he dropped them into her hand and he quickly says, "What? What did you see?"

"They're cold," she shrugged, making Stiles' eye twitch and Cora and I laugh.

"This is the last thing we're trying," Stiles said tiredly, handing Lydia a pencil. "It's called psychography or automatic writing. You should be able to write down where he is or some sort of clues."

She nodded and started moving the pencil across the paper. The thing she was working on turned out to be a tree, the same one that I'd seen her draw a couple times before. There was probably something to that, but Stiles' sudden outburst drew my attention away. Apparently she was supposed to write _sentences_ instead of drawing something.

"I told you, I'm not a psychic," Lydia shrugged again, dropping the pencil.

"No, but you're something!" Stiles screamed, making all of us flinch.

She glared at him and spat out, "You shouldn't even be talking to me, you should be talking to Danny."

Before any of us could ask why, Scott burst into the room and explained, "Danny was a target from the alphas, but he wasn't a sacrifice."

"Okay, so that means that we all need to go talk to Danny," I said, standing up and grabbing Lydia's hand again. "At least that's something that makes sense to do instead of all the bullshit we just did."

I flipped my hair over my shoulder and strutted out of the building with Lydia following me. We stopped at Stiles Jeep and waited for him to get out there. Lydia's look told me that I needed to tell her what was up before she started questioning Stiles.

"This morning we got a call from Deaton so we went to the clinic. Scott and I think that Stiles needs to tell his dad about all the supernatural stuff going on, but he doesn't agree. Then he basically said that I should have no say in the situation and that I was stupid," I said, tears burning my eyes again.

She pulled me close and hugged me tightly to her. "He's an ass, you're so smart and you have just as much say as Scott does. Don't let him make you think you're not important to this pack because you are."

"Hey, Allison just texted me and said that she needs my help with something. I'll meet up with you guys later and tell you what happens," Scott said, walking up to us after we let go of each other and hugging me. "Be safe, okay?"

I hugged him back before getting into the backseat with Lydia and leaving Cora to ride up front with Stiles. I didn't want to be close to him right now and I knew Cora freaked him out so it was the best choice. The ride to the hospital was awkward and I was grateful when we parked.

"Okay, so we've got to figure out which room Danny's in," Stiles said, rubbing his hands together. "I snagged one of his jerseys from his locker so, Cora, you can sniff him out."

"There's no way in hell I'm putting my face that close to something covered in teenage boy sweat," she replied sassily, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you want him, you sniff him out like a bloodhound because I'm sure as hell not going to."

Maybe I judged this girl too quickly, she might be okay. I liked how sassy she was being with Stiles, it was much appreciated. Granted, she didn't know _why_ I appreciated it so I couldn't tell her, but I could still think it.

I walked up to the service desk and asked the lady behind it, "Hey, Shelia, can you tell me which room Danny Māhealani is in? I'm on a break at school and I want to visit him."

"Hey Scar, thanks for babysitting Daniel and Denise last week, I really appreciate it," she smiled as she looked up his room. "He's in room 495 on the fourth floor."

"Thanks, I'd love to babysit them anytime. Just tell mom and I'll be all over it," I smiled before heading back over to the group. "That's how you get things done without a Scooby sense."

I saw Stiles watching me as I led the way up to Danny's room. Lydia, Cora, and I stood by the door as Stiles walked in. He tried several different ways to wake Danny up, but none of them seemed to work. The poor boy chose to wake up when Stiles was rifling through his bag.

"What are you doing?" he asked groggily, barely opening his eyes.

"I'm not doing anything, Danny. This is just a _dream_ that you're having," Stile said in a loopy voice, trying to convince Danny that he was in a dream.

It seemed to work because Danny laid back down and seemed to relax. Stiles let out a deep breath and bent back down to finish looking through his stuff. I don't know what he was looking for, but he was dead set on finding it.

"Why are you going through my stuff?" Danny asked a couple of seconds later, sounding more awake than he was the first time.

"Right, but only in the dream, remember? Dream, dreeeeeeaming," Stiles said airily, trying to make him go back to bed again.

He'd barely started again when Danny asked, "Why would I dream about you going through my stuff?"

I had to lean against Lydia so I wouldn't start laughing out loud because of how frustrated Stiles looked. It was also hella sexy, but I wasn't going to focus on that right now because he hurt my feelings.

"I don't know that, Danny, okay?! It's your dream so take responsibility for it. Shut up and go back to sleep," he almost screamed at him, making Lydia and I both lose it.

We ducked out into the hallway and hid our faces as we laughed. I head Cora chuckling under her breath and it made me laugh even harder. He was seriously so ridiculously awkward sometimes that I couldn't even handle it.

"If you're all finished being assholes, I think I found something," Stiles said, walking out into the hallway with us. "He wrote a paper for Mr. Harris' class about telluric currents. They're these electrical currents that flow naturally through the ground."

I heard my phone ringing so I pulled it out and put it on speaker. "Hey Scott, you're on speaker with Lydia, Stiles, and Cora as well as with me so speak appropriately." The last thing I wanted was for him to say something in front of Cora that she shouldn't hear and start a problem.

"Allison found a map with all the places that the bodies will be found," he said. "That's why she needed me to come over here and check it out."

"Well we found a paper that Danny wrote over telluric currents," Stiles told him. "They're electric currents that are found underground."

"Currents," Scott said thoughtfully. "Deucalion told me that I needed to follow the currents earlier."

"Wait, wait, wait –who's Deucalion?" I asked in confusion.

"He's the main alpha in the alpha pack, the one that's blind with the cane," Scott explained slowly. "Let's all meet up at the Animal Clinic and see what all we've got."

* * *

><p>Stiles basically took Danny's entire backpack with us to the clinic and dumped it out. He ended up having a map inside that was marked with all of the telluric currents running under Beacon Hills.<p>

"What does this kid's homework have to do with finding Deaton?" Cora asked in annoyance, her permanent mood.

"Because it's not just _some kid's homework_. It's about geomagnetic fields that flow through the earth and can be effected by lunar phases," Stiles explained. "Look over here at the note Harris left on the proposal."

Lydia pulled the paper over to her and read aloud, "I strongly advise you to choose another subject. The ideas here, while being innovative and thoughtful, border on pseudo-science. Which is not suitable for class."

"Mr. Harris wasn't just a sacrifice, he was killed because he knew something," Scott said in an excited voice because he was putting everything together.

"Look at all the currents that flow throughout Beacon Hills," I pointed out on Danny's map. "It's like it's an actual beacon of energy."

"Look at this, you guys, it's like they match," Scott said, laying Argent's map out next to Danny's. He circled each space as he talked about it, "There are two places, right? Where they're kidnapped and where the bodies are found."

"That's right on the telluric current," Lydia said, pointing to the circles Scott made.

"Maybe where Deaton is being sacrificed is between there somewhere," I said, tapping my nails against the table beside the maps.

Stiles took the marker from Scott and started marking. "Okay, so Deaton was taken here so he's got to be somewhere in between."

"Stop," Cora said before taking Stiles' hand in hers and moving to where two currents crossed. "He's in the same vault that Boyd and I were in. He's in the bank."

Anger coursed through my entire body at the sight of her touching _my_ Stiles. Then I looked at Stiles' face and saw that he was actually staring at her lovingly. The anger quickly turned into jealousy and hurt feelings yet again, god he was doing awful when it came to me today.

I pushed those feelings aside and helped gather all the things up. We were almost out the door when Lydia grabbed my arm and said, "Guys, hold on!"

"Lydia, we don't have time to stop," Scott said, his eyes full of desperation.

"It's Boyd, their plan didn't work. The alphas cut the power," Cora said as she looked at her phone, making me remember the plan to fry the alphas in Derek's loft.

"Okay, you guys go to them and I'll go get Deaton," Scott said suddenly. When he saw my reluctance, he took my shoulders in his hands, "I'm going to be fine. They need you to help them save Isaac, Boyd, and Derek. Go, I can handle myself, I swear. Cora can't get there fast enough without all of you all and this way we can save them all."

I hugged him tightly before rushing out to Stiles' Jeep. He drove over the speed limit the entire way to Derek's loft and the inside of the car was deathly quiet. I guess _deathly_ wasn't something that I should've used, but I couldn't undo it now.

As soon as we got to the loft, every one of us ran inside. Lydia and I were a little bit slower because we wearing heels, but we held our own. When we got to the door, I saw Derek fighting against Kali. Seeing that he had it somewhat under control so we ran to the electrical control room.

I grabbed Stiles phone out of his hand because I'd left mine in the Jeep and texted Isaac where we were. The others were flipping switches quickly until there was only one left. It had to be the one for the electricity so I texted Isaac that we were turning the power on.

"Let's go see what's happening," I said, grabbing Lydia's hand in mine and running back into the main room with Cora and Stiles close behind us.

I stopped in the doorway when I saw Boyd laying on the ground, surrounded by blood. Cora screamed and ran over to him, falling to her knees beside his body. Derek looked completely devastated, and I knew that he tried his best to stop what happened from happening.

Lydia crouched down beside Isaac and _Miss Blake_? Why was she always in the middle of everything lately? My suspicions over her intensified and I knew I needed to tell someone about it. I looked over and saw that Stiles was comforting Derek as best he could, but nothing could fix him right now.

* * *

><p>It was just Stiles and I in the car now since he'd dropped Lydia off at her house. We needed to talk about everything that happened between us today and my Jennifer Blake suspicion. The air around us was awkward as we tried to figure out we should say.<p>

"I'm sorry for being an ass to you today. You're so smart and we need you to figure this all out," he said after we pulled up into my driveway. "I was afraid for my dad this morning and I took it out on you."

I took off my seatbelt and tried to figure out what I should say in response. "It's okay, I shouldn't have reacted like I did. I'm just scared for everyone around me. I feel like I can't keep them safe."

He took my hands in his and turned his body to face me. "I feel the exact same way, Scar. I want to keep my dad out of this because I'm afraid that he might get hurt because I can't protect him. And then there's you…"

That stopped my heart for a second. How could he say that there was me after he had that moment with Cora earlier? I was so confused when it came to Stiles and my feelings for him.

"Look, I don't know anything about us anymore. I was so sure about my feelings for you and then everything changed and now I don't know," I sighed rubbing my temples. "I love you, Stiles, you know that, but I'm just…"

"Confused?" he laughed.

I laughed with him and nodded my head. "I'm going to go inside and check on Scott. He's pretty excited to tell me about something he learned with Deaton earlier."

He leaned forward and kissed my forehead before pulling me into a hug. I let go and ran inside before I did something that I would regret.

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><p><strong>Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks for reading (:<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**I struggled with writing this chapter and trying to _only _write the parts Peter said bc they told the story from his and Gerard's point of view. I hope it worked out right.**

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><p>I was laying on my bed doing my homework when my door slammed open. I jumped and looked up to see that Stiles was standing in the doorway with a grin. I knew that grin better than I wanted to, it meant that he wanted something from me. I sighed before sitting up and crossing my legs.<p>

"What's so important that it's interfering with my English homework?" I asked, chewing on the tip of my pen as I glanced down at the textbook in my lap. "Whether I think something's up with Miss Blake or not, I can't fail her class."

He laughed before sitting down in front of me and crossing his legs like mine. "I need you to go on a little trip with me. Are you down?"

I reluctantly closed my textbook and scooted closer to him. "What all does this trip entail? I know better than to just go along with you, Stilinski. The last time I did that I almost died in a jail cell because of a full moon and a transforming Isaac."

He took my hand in his and looked up at me with puppy dog eyes. "Derek's been completely off the map since Boyd died and I want to go investigate. Scott's with Allison trying to pump Gerard's geriatric ass so that leaves you to accompany me."

I knew that I should stay and study for the test that we're having tomorrow, but Stiles' puppy eyes were impossible to say no to. He even stuck out his bottom lip and whimpered a little bit so I hit him with one of my pillows. He laughed and grabbed the pillow out of my hands, knocking all of my stuff off into the floor in the process.

I was laughing so hard that I was almost crying by the time he knocked me onto my back and pined my hands to the bed. I looked up at him and saw that our faces were only inches apart and he was smiling down at me gently. It wasn't the same grin he had earlier when he wanted something. No, it was the grin that I saw him always give Lydia whenever he was admiring her from afar except it was for me this time.

I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth and glanced down at his lips before I could stop myself. His lips were so puffy, I wanted to know what they felt like pressed against mine. I felt one of his hands holding my face and realized that he wasn't holding my hands anymore.

I saw him tilting his head and leaning into me. I placed one of my hands on the side of his neck and arched my back so I could get closer to him, my heart jumping out of my chest as I realized we were about to kiss. _About to_ _kiss_ seemed to be as close as we would get because I heard his phone ringing in his pocket.

He groaned before pulling away from me and pressing his phone to his ear. "What? This better be, like, a life or death situation or I'm going to make it one."

I grabbed my glasses from the bed beside me and slid them back on before getting out of bed. My legs were a little bit shaky and I tried to hide it from Stiles. I stood at my dresser mirror and reput up my hair while Stiles talked on the phone.

"That was Cora, she said that we needed to get there before she ripped our throats out with her teeth. I think she's being serious so we'd better head out," he said, locking our gazes in the mirror.

His face was flushed and I could see the frustration behind his eyes because we'd gotten interrupted. I realized that I looked a lot like him, he'd wanted to kiss me as much as I'd wanted him to. We'd have to talk about what just happened, or _almost _happened, whenever we had time together later.

"We'd better go then," I said, turning around and facing him. "Lead the way."

He nodded and walked out of my room jerkily. Then he turned around, took my hand in his, and started making his way back downstairs. That boy was seriously so weird sometimes that gave the werewolves and Lydia and everything else in this town a run for their money.

* * *

><p>"Derek was running through the woods, trying his best to get away from the hunters. He hadn't realized that there were so many of them," Cora told us. "If it wasn't for Peter coming out of the shadows and stopping it, an arrow would've killed him that night."<p>

Stiles and I had gotten to Derek's loft for find her waiting for us impatiently. She said something along the lines of 'this was for us and not her so we needed to be here on time next time' or something. I just rolled my eyes and sat down on the couch with Stiles beside of me. I honestly wanted to talk about what just happened between us instead of hearing Derek's life story, but I guess that wasn't going to happen.

"They ran until they found an old, empty house and hid in the basement for a few days. It's call hide and heal, all born werewolves are taught to do it whenever we're being hunted," she continued.

"How is this story helping us find Derek in the here and now? He hasn't been seen since Boyd died," Stiles argued, crossing his arms stubbornly. "Since everyone's after him, shouldn't he be here? Like, where people can help him be safe and stuff."

"Derek has changed since I knew him. I don't know what he's doing anymore," Cora answered.

"Derek used to be a lot like Scott. He was unbearably romantic and profoundly narcissistic," Peter said, coming down the spiral staircase and standing in front of us. "His experience with a girl changed his personality and his eye color from gold to blue."

"That's my brother you're talking about, asshole," I reprimanded him. Then I went on to ask, "Derek Hale, the same guy who hates everything, was so in love with a girl that it changed everything about him? And what do you mean it changed his eye color? What does that have to do with anything?"

"As I was saying before the annoying little McCall interrupted me, Derek was in love with a girl named Paige that he met during his sophomore year of high school. He was just as annoyingly arrogant as everyone is at that age, but something about it drew her in," Peter explained.

"Wait, if Derek was a sophomore then, what age is he now? What age were you then? Hell, what age are you now?" Stiles asked quickly, trying to get all the details

"Not as young as we could've been, but not as old as you might think," Peter responded cryptically.

Stiles muttered a few choice words under his breath before turning to Cora. "How old are you?"

"17," she answers with a wry smile.

"You see that? That's an actual answer to that question," Stile cried matter-of-factly.

As if she couldn't handle seeing Stiles _not_ frustrated, she went on to add, "17 how you would measure in years, but not in lifetimes or experience."

"Oh my god, you all are impossible! You're going to cause his head to explode everywhere!" I exclaimed through my giggles when I saw his left eye start twitching.

"Derek had a special getaway that he went to to get some space from the family and such. It was an old abandoned distillery just outside of Beacon Hills. He told me about it because I was his closest friend, his confidant," Peter told us, but something about the way his moved his face told me that he wasn't being completely truthful. "Then Ennis, Kali, and Deucalion showed up with their full packs who were angry because the hunters killed one of their own."

"Hang on, the alphas used to have full packs of their own?" I asked stupidly. "Where did the packs go?"

Peter actually laughed at me and made my temper flare uncomfortably. "You stupid little girl, they had to kill their entire pack to gain their power. Then they all banded together and now they're almost undefeatable."

"They killed their own packs?!" I asked in disbelief, ignoring his jib at me. "How can an alpha kill his own pack? Aren't they considered their family and closest friends?"

"Yes, but that doesn't matter to someone who's power-hungry," Cora answered, her eyes flitting over to Peter. "Isn't that why you killed Laura, Uncle Peter?"

"I'm going to ignore that swipe and keep on telling the story," he said, looking back over at me. "All of the packs gathered in Beacon Hills to ask Talia Hale, my sister, for guidance."

"She was very well respected and known for having the ability to shift into a full wolf," Cora explained with pain and awe in her voice. "She had the gift so powerfully that it was passed on, Laura turned into a full wolf whenever she became alpha and I would as well if… you know."

Yet again I felt some sort of closeness with Cora. She was a hardass, but I would be too if I'd been through all of the things that she'd been through. Despite what would happen, I reached over and placed my hand over hers. She glared up and me, but I also noticed that she didn't make me move. I think she kind of enjoyed the contact with someone who wasn't trying to kill her.

"I hate to interrupt this Lifetime movie moment, but the story isn't over by a longshot," Peter said, breaking through mine and Cora's moment. "Ennis was dead set on getting his revenge, but Deucalion wanted him to stay away from that. Talia said that if he went after his vendetta that it would start an all-out war with the Argents."

Peter stood up and walked over to the windows of the loft. He moved his hands over the condensation that had gathered on it and left a large spiral when he stepped back. "That's the mark of vendetta that Ennis left on the wall of the distillery."

"What is it with werewolves having revenge-fueled killing sprees? They take the whole revenge thing to a new level," Stiles exclaimed, standing up and walking over to Peter with Cora and I trailing behind him.

"It's not about revenge, it's about losing a member of your pack. It hurts worse than losing a member of your family, it's like losing a limb," Cora explained, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's unimaginable."

I was yet again overtaken with the urge to hug her. She'd lost all of her family _and_ her pack in a fire, even thinking that her brother and uncle died. I couldn't even imagine losing mom and Scott like that. Much less adding Allison, Lydia, Stiles, Isaac, and Derek to that pain.

"To make it even worse, the authorities wouldn't let Ennis see his dead beta. Stilinski said that it was a homicide and that Ennis wasn't family so he couldn't see the body," Peter tried to reign us back into the story. "As you can imagine, that didn't set well with Ennis. Pack is family."

I rolled my eyes at his use of that but didn't say anything.

"When I looked at Ennis' situation, I felt profound loss, but Derek saw it was a chance to always be with Paige," Peter said, his face doing the same thing as it did earlier so I knew he was lying. "I tried to convince him otherwise, but he was too convinced for me to change his mind."

"Derek lived in a constant fear that Paige was going to find out what he was." Everything that was coming out of his mouth was a lie apparently, but I still listened.

"Paige liked to sit alone at lunch and I always thought it was strange. Whenever I asked Derek about it, he always said that she liked to study because she didn't like his friends," he said. "I told him that perfect combinations were rare, and that he and Paige should always stay together because they were one."

That told me that he was lying. He said earlier that he tried to convince Derek to not give Paige the bite, but now he was completely going against what he said. I just hoped that Stiles caught on to it too, or I was going to look really stupid when I told him about it later.

"Why would Derek ever want someone to go through what we do? Especially someone that he was in love with," Cora asked skeptically, it seemed like she was wondering as much as I was why Peter was lying.

"Whenever you're in love with someone, young Cora, you'd do anything to be with them forever. It's even stupider when it's your first love," Peter mused, glancing at Stiles and I.

I looked over at Stiles and saw that his jaw was clenched tightly as he stared Peter down. I didn't know what was going on, but something was happening between them that I wasn't aware of.

"The counselor at your school who's Deaton's sister is actually the alpha pack's emissary," Peter said, trying to change the topic of conversation.

"Why do the werewolves never tell me important things like that? That's a very important thing to tell Stiles!" Stiles said, jumping back to his feet.

I stood up with him and placed a comforting hand on his back and made him turn around to face me. "Hey, it's okay. We're going to let Peter finish his story before jumping Scott's ass about not telling us."

The tension in his body left and he sat back down on the couch beside me. He took my hand into his and ran his thumb over the top of it to make sure he was chilled out.

"I told that woman a lot of things about my life, a lot of intimate details," he breathed out. "But she did give me really good advice…"

"That's what emissaries do," Peter agreed with him. Then he went back into his story, "Derek asked Paige to meet up with him at the school. But he actually wanted her to meet with Ennis so he could give her the bite. He sat in the locker room by himself, listening her crying and whimpering as Ennis chased her and bit her."

"Why would Derek want Ennis to turn her? Even more, why would Ennis _want _to bite and change her?" Cora asked skeptically, eyeing Peter.

"He was the perfect person to do the job. He had just lost a member of his pack and, by doing Derek a favor, he would gain a place in Talia's good graces," Peter told her.

"Derek doesn't remember that it was Ennis who bit her?" I asked, playing with Stiles' fingers.

"If he remembers, he hasn't said anything about it," he answered. The story went on, "After Paige was bitten, Derek realized that it wasn't going to change her."

"You told me the night that you bit Lydia that if the bite doesn't change you it kills you," Stiles said, suddenly putting all of the pieces together. "It killed Paige, didn't it?"

"It was going to, but Derek was trying to help her. He took as much of her pain away as he could and when it got too much for her to handle, he killed her," Peter finished his story. "When a werewolf kills an innocent, it takes a piece of their soul and makes it a little darker."

"That's what you meant when you said it changed his eyes! Yours are blue and Jackson's were blue whenever he finally changed last year!" I gasped, realizing that it meant they were all killers.

* * *

><p>Whenever Peter left, I knew I had to tell Stiles and Cora that I thought he was lying. I hoped that they agreed with me because the last thing I wanted was the pair of them against me.<p>

"What's that look about?" Cora asked me.

"What look?" I asked, feigning innocence.

"The look that makes me want to punch you," she answered dismissively, making me smile.

"Oh wow, you definitely are Derek's sister," I exclaimed.

I hit her shoulder with mine and made her laugh. Stiles looked at us with raised brows, I wasn't exactly easy to trust people after my dad left. I was being pretty chummy with Cora considering we'd just met.

"I think he's keeping secrets and lying about some of the parts of the story he told us," I told them both, making the mood more serious.

"Yeah, I thought so too while he was talking. We're reading _Heart of Darkness _in school and it has an unreliable narrator," Stiles said suddenly drawing mine and Cora's attention. "He tells the story from his perspective to make himself look like he's a good person."

"It's almost like we didn't get the whole story from him," I added.

"So are you planning to ask Derek about the girl that he loved but had to kill?" Cora asked Stiles with a raised brow that would put his to shame.

"I'll do it if I have to," he finally answered before standing up and pulling me up as well. "We're going to head out before this storm gets worse."

"I'll see you later, Cora," I said, squeezing her hand before following Stiles back outside and out to the front door. "Are we going to make a run for it? It's pouring outside."

He held his hand out for me and laced our fingers together. "On the count of three we run out to the Jeep. It shouldn't be locked."

I nodded and when he hit three, I clutched his hand and ran as fast as I could to the Jeep. I was almost inside when Stiles pulled me to a stop in the middle of the parking lot. I cupped a hand over my eyes so I could see him.

"What are you doing? I'm getting soaked to the bone," I shouted to be heard over the pounding rain.

"What's going on between us, Scarlet? I'm so confused about everything, especially us," he cried, throwing his arms out dramatically.

I scoffed at the fact that he thought he was frustrated. I was the queen of sexual frustration whenever it came to a certain Stiles Stilinski. I couldn't exactly tell him that without sounding like a total horn-dog so I kept it to myself. I actually stomped my foot on the ground and pushed his chest.

"Why do you think I know what's going on?! You've been there just as much as I have," I shouted back at him. "What do you think we are?"

That wasn't the answer that he wanted judging by the way he stalked off towards his Jeep. That wasn't even fair, I was supposed to be the one that threw bitch-fits, not Stiles.

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><p><strong>I seriously rewrote this chapter like four times before I got it to look like this so... Yeah.<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**I don't even want to talk about what happened last night. I am seriously so devastated that I can't put it into words right now nor could I last night. Allison was literally a perfect mixture of badass and gorgeous. I'm going to miss her so much. **

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><p>I was sitting at the kitchen table this time while trying to finish my English homework. Technically I was finished with the paper itself, but I still had to edit and arrange it until it was to Miss Blake's approval.<p>

"Scarlet, Lydia just called and said that she thinks she found a dead body. We need to get there as soon as we can," Scott said quickly, rushing into the kitchen with me. "Stiles is waiting outside, let's go!"

I might as well just accept an F on this project because I was never going to get it completely finished. I stood up and grabbed my jacket before jogging out to the Jeep. I wordlessly slid into the backseat and let Scott ride shotgun. Things were odd between Stiles and I after we'd almost kissed those two times. Neither of us really knew what we needed to do in order to move forward in our relationship.

Thankfully Scott chattered on about something so the ride to the school wasn't _that_ awkward. As soon as the Jeep stopped, I practically sprung out and ran up to Allison's car where she and Lydia were waiting for us.

"The last time I was in a fugue state I was told that I had to call you and Stiles before the police. I drove here and called Allison before you guys," Lydia explained in a trembling voice. "I didn't want to find another dead body by myself."

We walked onto the school's campus together wordlessly. I held Lydia's hand tightly in mine as Scott and Stiles led the way to the center of campus. Lydia said something was drawing her there so we figured that would be the best place to look first. I heard someone take a deep breath and knew we'd found the body.

"That's Tara," Stiles whispered, I could hear the pain in his voice.

I stepped forward and took his hand in mine, I could not handle him being upset. He'd lost two people he'd known most of his life to these sacrifices. If I were him, I'd be completely devastated.

"What group does she fall into? There were already three warriors sacrificed," Allison asked Scott, but we all heard her.

"She used to be a teacher before joining the force," Stiles said, his voice making me ache inside. "I think she's the first of the philosophers."

"If that's true, the Darach is getting really close to finishing the sacrifices. That's the second to last group," I said, staying close to Stiles just in case he needed me.

"That means we have to get on this and get on it fast," Scott said finally.

* * *

><p>By the time I got to school the next morning, I was dead on my feet. I'd spent the night trying my best to comfort a devastated Stiles. He ended up falling asleep at around three and so did I, but that didn't make waking up at six to get ready any easier. I actually woke up with my phone still on and Stiles snoring quietly on the other line.<p>

You'd never tell how tired I was by looking, I looked insanely gorgeous. I wore a dress and heels even though I knew better in this town, but my legs looked so good in them it was worth it. I was digging through my locker for my Spanish book when I felt someone standing next to me.

I looked over and saw that Stiles was leaning against the locker beside mine. He looked upset, but better than he did last night whenever he'd found the deputy. I closed the locker after I got my books and leaned against it, waiting for him to start talking.

"According to my father, the FBI and 'half the state' are coming in to help with the investigation," he said, moving his hands rapidly as he spoke. "He told me that I needed to stop meddling, but Tara was important to me, too, but it's like he doesn't realize it."

I put my books into my bag and sat it on the ground before wrapping my arms tightly around Stiles. We were all just kids that were thrown into something that we got no say in. He held my waist like it was the only thing tethering him to the world, pressing his face into my hair and breathing in deeply.

"This is going to work itself out, Stiles," I whispered, kissing the side of his head. "It can't rain forever, the sun has to come out eventually."

He nodded and hugged me a little tighter before letting go and taking a step back. "I know we're weird right now, but I'm really glad that I have you."

I took a breath and tried to ignore the butterflies that exploded in my stomach at his words. He put his arm around my shoulders and picked up my backpack before heading towards class. He was literally walking me to class like a gentleman and it was so cute!

I slid into my seat behind Stiles right as the bell rang and everyone else filed inside. Miss Blake was sitting behind her desk, but I saw her eyes flashing over to us. I guess that happens whenever you find out some of your students are werewolves and watch one of them die because of your boyfriend who's also a werewolf. I don't care how much I felt sorry for her, there was still something off about her.

She stood up and started lecturing about idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes. She was talking about how authors used them to tell stories as she walked through the rows of seats. I saw her stop beside Lydia and glance down at her notebook where she was drawing something with almost scary intensity.

"I wasn't aware that you had so many hidden talents, Lydia," she said as she pointed out the tree.

"You and every boy I've ever dated," she quipped back without looking up from her notebook.

I felt a laugh bubbling in my chest and quickly clamped a hand over my mouth to stifle it. The last thing I wanted was for Miss Blake to turn around and see me making fun of her. She might kill me or something…

"That's an example of an idiom, Lydia," she said after she'd recovered from Lydia's words.

She turned away from Lydia and I saw her eyes land on Stiles, Scott, and me. She seemed to be at a loss for words, but that was to be expected. She sort of did learn a lot in one night, it was to be expected that she'd be a little bit freaked now.

"Idioms require both the reader and the author to have common base knowledge of either culture or language," she said, trying to go back to teacher mode. "The term 'jump the gun' only works if both the author and the reader know about the use of guns to start races. It also works with the phrase 'seeing the whole board' if…"

"Both the reader and the author have a basic knowledge of chess," Stiles said suddenly, making me look over at him in appreciation. "Dad used to say that whenever he was teaching me how to play when I was younger."

Miss Blake went on teaching, seemingly relieved that we'd participated in the lesson. She had a hard time getting the entire classes' attention a lot because she was so close to our age. The entire time she was talking, I could practically hear the wheels in Stiles' head turning.

* * *

><p>After class was over, Scott got both Stiles and I before heading over where we could talk in silence. He had a plan to get Aiden and Ethan apart so that he could talk to Ethan alone. I'm sure it was just as brilliant as all of our plans always were…not.<p>

"Good luck with that, Aiden and Ethan have been inseparable since what happened in the loft the other night," Stiles quipped as soon as Scott finished telling us his plan.

"I think that the Darach might have been the alpha pack's emissary," he said, ignoring Stiles' negativity.

"Okay, so I need to get Lydia and tell her that she needs to distract Aiden so we can interrogate Ethan, right?" I asked, ignoring Stiles too.

After Scott nodded, I broke away from them and chased Lydia down the hall. She turned around and took one look at me before frowning. She knew that I wanted something, but she was going to listen which was more than I thought she would. I figured she would say no before I even spoke and keep walking down the hallway.

"So, I need to ask you to do a huge favor for Scott," I started out, knowing how hard it was to say no to my brother and I combined. "Do you think you could distract Aiden with your bangin' bod so that we can talk to Ethan?"

I saw her resolve slowly crumbling so I stuck out my bottom lip and batted my lashes at her dramatically. I whimpered under my breath and made my lip tremble to add more to it. I was basically making myself look like a total moron, but it was worth it when she finally agreed to do it.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I cheered, hugging her and bouncing up and down with her. "I owe you so much, like major, big time IOU!"

She groaned, but I felt her hugging me back reluctantly.

* * *

><p>It was a lot easier getting Aiden distracted than I imagined, but then again Lydia was gorgeous. Now I was standing in an empty hallway with Scott, Stiles, and Ethan. I wasn't really too scared, even though I should be, I knew Aiden was the most fearsome of the evil alpha twins.<p>

"Why are you even talking to me right now? For all you know, I could kill another member of your pack," Ethan said, turning his gaze over to me and eyeing me up like I was the next one on his kill list.

As soon as Stiles heard that, he moved in front of me and started threatening Ethan. "If you even think about touching her, I swear to god I'll break off an extra-large branch of mountain ash, wrap it in wolfsbane and roll it in mistletoe, and shove it up your freakin'…"

"Even though I agree completely with Stiles about you ever hurting my sister, I don't think that's what we need to do," Scott said, quickly restoring order between all of us. "I know you didn't kill Boyd, and I don't think you'd do something like that again."

"Before you go and think you know me, you should know that we were pretty much omegas in our own pack. Our alpha abused the hell out of us and our pack mates were all brutal killers," Ethan explained.

"If that's true, why didn't you just become Voltron Wolf and kick their asses?" Stiles asked from his place in front of me.

"We didn't know how to do that back then. Deucalion helped us develop the ability to merge our forms and kill all of our oppressors," he said. "Now we owe him our lives because he saved us."

"Okay, I have this theory about the Darach being an emissary," Scott mentioned after Ethan finished his back story. "Is that true?"

"All of our old emissaries are dead except for Deucalion's," Ethan said, but he cut off quickly and bent himself in an awkward angle and whimpered under his breath. "Something's happening to Aiden, I can feel it!"

We all followed him as he rushed to the locker room to see that Aiden and Cora were locked in a fight. She was lying on the ground and Aiden had a weight clutched in his hand, getting ready to hit her in the head with it.

"You can't attack any of Derek's pack until Kali's deadline on the next full moon!" Ethan shouted, making Aiden glance over at me and Lydia.

She and I were clutching each other just outside Coach Finstock's office with Stiles as we watched them fighting. I saw Aiden's face turn shameful and knew that whatever he felt for Lydia was stronger than any of us realized. He really cared about her whether he knew it or not. It wasn't just a fling for him anymore.

Ethan rushed over to Aiden and pulled him out of the locker room. I knew that they had to go heal themselves before anything else could happen so we were safe now. Stiles moved forward quickly and crouched next to Cora and, when I saw how badly hurt she was, I was right beside him.

She sat up quickly and I saw her shaking a little so I reached out to steady her. She grabbed my wrist in her iron-like grip and I could feel the bruise already forming. She used her grip on my arm to push me out of the way before dabbing at the blood on her forehead.

"You're all just a bunch of stupid teenagers! You think you can save people, but all you do is show up too late to do anything but find the dead bodies," she screamed, jumping up and stepping away from all of us.

"You don't have to be a bitch just because you're upset. I'm sorry that your life isn't what you wanted, but we just save you. You could be a little more appreciative of us," I shouted before I could stop myself.

My frustration and anger from all the days we'd been out building up until I couldn't handle it anymore. She could've been a little grateful that we saved her stupid werewolf ass, we could've just let her die.

"Okay, we need to get out of here and get Cora home," Stiles said, taking my hand and trying to diffuse the tension. "I'll give you a ride, if you want, I mean."

I kept holding onto Stiles' hand because there was no way in hell I was going to let her go anywhere alone with Stiles. I needed a ride home anyways seeing as Lily brought me this morning. Or at least that's what I told Stiles when I tagged along behind him and Cora as they walked to his Jeep.

He seemed to be thankful when I sat in the front seat and Cora got into the back. He didn't say anything, but the way his eyes met mine and he smiled told me all I needed to know.

* * *

><p>We were going down the road when my phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my bag and saw that it was Allison so I put it on speaker.<p>

"Okay, so we think that we figured out what the word "Guardians" that was written on my dad's desk means," Allison said, I could hear her moving around as she spoke. "Since the first sacrifice was a deputy, we think that it means law enforcement."

After she finished telling us what she found, I hung up and slid my phone back into my bag. I looked over at Stiles and saw the wheels turning in his head again. I just waited quietly until he decided to tell me what he was running through his mind.

"I have to tell my dad about what's going on, like, the supernatural things. It's the only way to keep him safe," he finally said, running a hand through his hair when we stopped at a red light.

I knew that he'd been struggling with the idea of telling his father about everything, but something in his tone said that he was actually going to tell him. I knew how hard it was going to be so I reached over and grabbed his hand in mine, letting him drive with the other.

He swerved on the road and quickly turned around and started heading towards his house. I knew he'd decided that Cora was going to be an example and I guess I was just along for the ride. I was probably going to end up being moral support and I would do it happily.

* * *

><p>I underestimated how hard it was going to be to explain the supernatural things to Sheriff Stilinski. Stiles was still pacing the length of his bedroom, trying his best to come up with the best way to start. Cora and I were sitting on his bed, waiting until it was out time to help him.<p>

"I really don't have any time for this nonsense right now, Stiles," the sheriff said, crossing his arms as he stared at his son expectantly.

Stiles sighed before jumping in, "Do you remember last year when you and so much trouble solving all those murders? Well, you're playing a losing game right now."

"I really don't need a performance review from you," he replied as he grew even more impatient.

I saw something clicking in Stiles' head and he quickly started trying put things into a perspective that he knew his father would understand.

Stiles had his chessboard in his hands when he started talking again. "You're losing because you've never been able to see the whole board. I can show it to you, if you'll let me."

I stood up and started rummaging around in his desk for something to label the chess pawns with. I knew Stiles well enough to know that everything was going to be a visual now. I eventually found some thin Post-it notes and a pen and handed it over to a nervous-looking Stiles.

"Can you write all the hunters' names on purple strips, the werewolves on pink ones, Jackson's on a yellow one, and Deaton's on a blue one for me?" Stiles asked, quickly picking out the pawns he wanted to use.

After all the pieces were on the board, Sheriff Stilinski asked incredulously, "Scott and Derek are…werewolves?"

"Yes."

"And Kate Argent was a werewolf, too?" the Sheriff asked, confusion taking over his face.

"Hunter," Stiles said quickly. "That's… Purple's hunter."

"Which includes Kate, Allison, and Chris Argent," I added, trying to help Stiles out and make Sheriff Stilinski _not_ think Stiles was completely crazy.

"Yeah, and my friend Deaton, the veterinarian, that your best friend and your brother, the werewolf, works for is a Kanima?" Sheriff Stilinski's confusion seemed to be growing instead of disappearing.

"Well, no. No. No. No. No. No. He's a druid. Okay? Well, we think he is anyways," Stiles said quickly.

"We do?!" I questioned, but quickly shut my mouth when he glared over at me with a twitching eye.

"Okay, in that case, who _is_ the Kanima?" Sheriff Stilinski asked, saving me from Stiles' wrath.

"Jackson."

"No, Jackson's a werewolf."

"Jackson was the Kanima first, then Peter and Derek killed him, and he came back to life as a werewolf. He's living in London now, and yes I know there's a movie," Stiles answered in one breath.

"Who's the Da-Rack?"

"It's Da-Rock," Stiles answered quickly.

"We don't know yet," Cora said, speaking for the first time.

"Yeah, we don't know yet," Stiles agreed.

"But he was killed by werewolves." The sheriff seemed to be getting the gist of all the things that were happening in Beacon Hills, well as much as anyone could.

"Slashed up and left for dead," I added onto his statement.

"We think," Cora said, eyeing me as she spoke.

"Why was Jackson a Kanima first?"

"Sometimes the shape that you take reflects the person that you are," I answered for Stiles, trying to help Sheriff Stilinski understand what was going on as quickly as possible.

"What shape would an increasingly confused and angrier by the second father take?" the Sheriff asked, crossing his arms and setting his jaw in a way that reminded me a whole lot of Stiles whenever he was angry.

"I'm pretty sure it would actually be the expression that you're wearing currently," Stiles answers dejectedly. Then his eyes lit up and he turned around to look at Cora. "Can you transform right now?"

"Transform? What's she going to become?" the Sheriff asks, a little fear coloring his voice.

"She's Derek's sister and Peter's niece so she's a werewolf. I can't think of a better way to prove to you that they're real," I answered, standing up and moving over next to Stiles.

She rolled her eyes, but I saw her moving to stand up anyway. As soon as she stood up, she fell back to the ground. I rushed over to her and saw that she was unconscious. I looked up at her head and saw that her wound from earlier had reopened and was bleeding black blood. From my extensive exposure of werewolf wounds, black blood was not a good sign.

"Oh wow, she's unconscious. We need to get her to the hospital," I said, brushing her hair out of the blood so I could see her face. When I looked up and saw that they were still, I shouted, "She's unconscious in your floor from a head wound. We need to get her to the hospital! Okay?! Let's move it, people!"

That seemed to break them out of their trance because Stiles rushed forward and picked Cora up. He jostled her a little in his haste, but he soon figured out that he needed to be more careful. His eyes looked up to mine and I saw the fear deep in their depths.

When we got to the hospital, I stayed with Cora while Stiles went somewhere with his father. I didn't really know what to do, I wasn't her family, but I was all she had right now. I reached out and took her hand in mine before starting to talk to her about the first things that popped into my head.

"When I first met you, I thought you were going to be a total bitch. Then I realized that you were just hard like that because you'd had to be your whole life. I realized that it was your strength that intimidated me and it made me jealous, I want to be as strong as you are," I said. "To be honest, this town terrifies me and, if I was as strong as you are, I could keep me and the people I care about safe.

"Stiles is the clever one, he figures all this stuff out. I'm just the one that's always in the way, I just want to be helpful. I want to know that can protect someone. I wish I could be lethal like you, but I'm just pathetic," I said, tears burning my eyes.

"Hey, Derek's here and he wants to see her," Stiles said from behind me, making me jump. "We'll go meet up with Scott at the high school."

I raised an eyebrow at him but followed anyways. As we walked out of the hospital room, I saw Derek standing beside the door with a frown on his face. Before I could stop myself, I wrapped my arms tightly around him and tried my best to comfort him. Cora was the last part of his family that he had that wasn't bat-shit crazy. He actually hugged me back briefly before going into Cora's room and shutting the door behind him.

* * *

><p>I followed Stiles into the school and towards the sound of music. I hugged Scott, holding onto him with all of my might, I never realized how much I needed to keep him close. I saw Derek and Cora and how close he was to losing her, and I couldn't imagine losing Scott like that.<p>

"Hey, wasn't Lydia here earlier? She's gone now," Stiles said after Scott and I broke away from each other.

"Uhm, yeah, she was standing right of there, but now she's gone. That's not good," Scott said, taking my hand in his as we head outside the school. "Maybe she's out here, let me look around."

I let go of him and stepped back to stand with Stiles as Scott looked over the entire schoolyard. He looked back over at us and shook his head. All of a sudden, a terrified scream tore through the school and I saw Scott him his knees and cover his ears. I quickly kicked off my heels and picked them up before tearing through the courtyard behind Scott and Stiles. That scream sounded a whole lot like it came from Lydia and something in my gut told me it belonged to her.

Damn, I really needed to start wearing sneakers to school. These chases were getting harder and harder to do in the heels that I liked to wear.

We burst into the school and ran down the halls until we stopped outside Miss Blake's room. I knew there was something wrong with her! I knew it and I told everyone, but they thought I was crazy. Scott busted the door open and ran inside, his teeth and fur sprouted out as he let out a roar.

Jennifer just reached out her hand and knocked him to the floor. I screamed and ran over to him, crouching down beside him as he spat out blood. I knew there was no way he was getting up yet so I had to handle things with Stiles. Just as I was thinking that, Jennifer used her Darach-y strength to push a desk in front of the door and block Stiles outside the room.

I looked over at her but met the sheriff's eyes instead. I saw that everything Stiles, Cora, and I tried to explain to him earlier had finally clicked into place. He believed us now, but it may be to late.

Sheriff Stilinski switched his gun to his left hand and I saw that there was a knife sticking out of his right shoulder. Oh hell to the no, she did not stab the sheriff. He was off limits whenever I came to crazy-ass supernatural and they're weird choice of weapons. Like seriously, where the hell did this crazy bitch get a freakin' _dagger_?

"I'm the girl who was found in the woods that was slashed to pieces. I was literally moments away from death when I drug myself to the Nemeton and gained its strength," Miss Blake said, speaking only to the Sheriff like Scott, Lydia, and I weren't even there.

"I know," Sheriff Stilinski said, not showing his fear.

"Maybe I should have started with philosophers, with knowledge and strategy," Jennifer said, her face was smiling but something about it made my skin crawl.

Sheriff Stilinski cocked his gun and fired a shot into her leg, making me jump and wish Stiles was with me. He was the only thing that made me feel safe, especially considering Scott was out of commission.

I watched as her leg healed itself faster than I'd ever seen Scott or any of the werewolves heal. She saw me staring and smiled, "Healers."

Then she reached forward and grabbed her dagger, using it to lift the sheriff off of the ground. She reached out and twisted his wrist until he dropped his gun to the floor before tossing him back into a stack of chairs. I winced and fought every instinct I had to run over to him. I knew it would only make things worse.

"Warriors," she smiled. Then she reached forward and grabbed his badge, crunching the metal in her hands like it was paper, "Guardians."

The next thing was something I never thought I'd see. She moved as close to him as she could get, whispered "Virgins" and pressed her mouth to his. I was so blown away that her appearing as the Darach made me fall back against the wall. She was ghastly looking with her sickly, scarred white skin and her messed up eyes.

I followed my instinct this time and ran over to try and get Sheriff Stilinski away from her. I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him over to where Scott was lying on the ground, groaning and trying to get up. I didn't see Jennifer's hand until it connected with my face and sent my head reeling backwards along with my body.

I tasted blood in my mouth, it was filling it up. I tried to maneuver my head to the side so I could spit it out, but I couldn't move. It hurt terribly, but I forced myself into a sitting position when I heard glass breaking. Stiles had managed to push the desk out from in front of the door and Scott was making his way over to me. I looked around for Sheriff Stilinski, but he was gone along with Jennifer.

"Where'd they go?!" Stiles asked, turning around in a hectic circle as he searched for his father.

I was about to respond to him when I started coughing. I felt blood fill my mouth up again so I spit it out and used Scott to help me stand up. I was a little woozy, but I stumbled over to Stiles and held his shoulders in my hands.

"Hey, we're going to find him. I swear," I slurred, forcing him to look at me. "I always keep my promises to you and I promise to find him."

He pulled me close to him and hugged me with all he was worth. I felt him shaking against me and knew he was sobbing against my neck. I just held him as close to me as I could and tried to calm him down. I felt Scott wrap his arms around me from behind me and I was sandwiched in between them.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm really excited to write the next chapter because serious Starlet happens. Stay tuned for the next chapter :)<strong>


	13. Chapter 13

**So I got a comment on the last chapter that made me realize that I _have_ been making Scarlet follow the others around. I tried my best to make her more independent this chapter. I hope it flows with the story and doesn't make her a Mary Sue character or anything.**

**I got this episode and the next one confused, the MAJOR Starlet doesn't happen in this chapter, it happens in the next one. I hope you guys aren't mad, I didn't lie on purpose. I swear.**

* * *

><p>The last thing I wanted was to be away from Scott and Stiles right now, but mom needed my help. There was a storm brewing in Beacon Hills that was so severe the hospital had to evacuate the patients to another one. I'd been CPR certified and that was enough for the doctors to agree because they were so desperate to get everyone out of there before the big storm hit.<p>

"Okay, I want you to evacuate every room and, whenever it's empty, put an X on the door with this tape," mom instructed, tossing all of us a roll of red tape.

"This weather is seriously insane! It was only supposed to be mild thunderstorms," Doctor Bryson said, running up to mom.

I wanted to stay and listen to what he had to say, but I had rooms that needed to be evacuated. I couldn't prove it, but I was sure that this weather had something to do with Jenn- the Darach. She-it-whatever was a druid and that meant they could influence the weather. That was a scary thought.

I was walking through the hallway when I heard a frustrated growl. I ran into the room, ready to explain the evacuation when I saw that it was Peter and Cora. She was lying on a bed, pale and sweaty, and still unconscious.

"The evacuation is long going and we're trying to work our way through all the rooms. I'm sorry it's taking so long to get to you," I said, squeezing Cora's hand as I spoke.

A sudden beeping sound made both of us turn and look over at Cora. Her entire body lurched forward and she spewed black goo onto the floor. I winced and got over my disgust to investigate the chunks. I could never explain why that wasn't weird, but then again that was Beacon Hills.

I don't know how I recognized the mistletoe berries in the goo, but I did. Peter already had his phone out and I heard him explaining to Derek what was going on. The call was short and over before I even realized it.

I was rubbing Cora's arm and brushing her hair off of her sweaty forehead when Peter walked back over to us. The door of the room burst open and mom came inside with us. The look on her face when she saw Peter would've been comical if I wasn't scared shitless for Cora and everything else going on in this damn town.

"I thought you were dead," she said when she finally found her voice.

"Yeah, I get that a lot," he responded seriously.

"I have to go meet Scott, Stiles, and Derek at the entrance," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose in annoyance at this entire situation. "If you hurt my mom, I'll shoot your body so full of wolfsbane and mistletoe you'll never walk again. I swear it, Peter Hale."

I squeezed Cora's hand once more and looked at mom reassuringly before leaving the room. I slipped through the hordes of people and stood at the emergency entrance. I actually laughed out loud when I saw that Stiles was wielding my mother's bat that he'd stolen last year. That was the boy that I chose to have a thing for. Oh my.

"Don't look at me like that! Scott's got claws, I'm going to protect us with a bat, okay?" he said when his eyes met mine.

I ignored him and grabbed Scott's arm to make him focus in on me. "Okay, mom said that there are two ambulances coming, one in ten minutes and the other in twenty. Cora has to be on one of them when they load in the parking garage in the basement of the building. I'm responsible for getting her into it and making sure that all of us make it out of here alive."

Scott's eyebrows were raised in surprise whenever I finished explaining. "I like this new side of you, sis. Where did it come from? You're all badass and stuff."

"I don't know, I guess what Cora said about us finding the bodies really got to me. I'm tired of following all of you around, I want to independent and not afraid anymore," I told him, my voice was strong and I held my head high as I spoke.

With that being said, I turned around and headed back to Cora and Peter. I heard Scott and Stiles struggling to catch up with me and I smiled to myself, it was nice being in the lead for once.

Well I thought so until I walked up and saw the twins, in full alpha Transformer Wolf, fighting with Derek. Scott zoomed past me and started fighting with him, but they were helplessly outfought. The alphas could beat them with their eyes closed, and they were doing _way_ better with them open.

I grabbed Stiles' wrist and stood on my tiptoes to whisper in his ear, "We need to get Peter and Cora downstairs to that ambulance. I'll feel a hell of a lot better when I know she's safe. I don't know what it is, but there's something about her that makes me want to take care of her."

"I don't know where this surge of confidence came from, but it's really sexy, Scarlet," he said with a waggle of his eyebrows before slipping into Cora's room with me

When we walked in, I saw that Peter had Cora in his arms. "It's nice of you all to show back up. My niece is dying and you're outside flirting."

"Shut up! I'm so tired of your sarcasm and your snarky remarks," I screamed at him, my anger overflowing. "I'm risking my very _human _life to save your niece. Be a little bit more grateful, dammit."

I seemed to be having all sorts of personality changes today, but I've heard stress does that to people. The look on Peter and Stiles' face was enough to make me smile.

"As much as I love the fact that you're finally developing a backbone, little McCall, we need to get my sister somewhere safe," Derek said, coming into the room with Scott on his heels.

"Jennifer ran away with the twins on her tail so we need to get Cora away while they're distracted," Scott told us, his breath coming out in ragged puffs.

I knew this hospital like the back of my hand, I'd grown up here. I could get them downstairs the fastest, but Scott had already taken off towards the operating room. I groaned when I saw the others chasing behind him, leaving me behind with Stiles.

"Just humor him and maybe he'll get us out. He wants to feel important, you've messed him up a little with this sudden character development," Stiles smiled, taking my hand before chasing after the werewolves.

I heard a crash behind me and whirled around the see Voltron Wolf chasing us. I tightened my grip on Stiles' hand and allowed him to yank me into the operating room. He moved in front of me and raised his err, _mom's_, bat up high above his head, and whenever the twins ran into the room, he slammed it into their head.

I don't know what I expected to happen, but it wasn't for the bat to freakin' disintegrate. The bat literally turned into sawdust from the force of Stiles' hit and the hardness of the twins' head. I don't know who was more surprised them or us, but I definitely know who was more pissed.

"We should run," Derek said before taking off with Cora still in his arms.

None of us gave it a second thought before booking it after him. In theory, his idea was smart, but that wasn't factoring in how fast a Mega-Wolf could run. I saw Scott jump into the air and grab one of the light fixtures out of the ceiling before slamming it against the twins. The hit seemed to stun them long enough for us to put some distance between us and them, and that was what we needed.

Once we were safe, I bent over and tried to catch my breath. Whether I was on the cross country team or not, that was still a lot of running. If you add in the amount of adrenaline pumping through my veins and how hard my heart was beating, I was probably lucky I hadn't had a heart attack yet.

"We lost the twins!" Stiles cheered when we were inside the operating room, but then his face fell. "Oh my God, that also means that we lost Jennifer!"

"Will you shut up?!" Derek shouted at him.

"Me be quiet? Me? Are you telling me what to do now? When your psychotic mass-murdering girlfriend, the second one you've dated, by the way, has got my dad somewhere, tied up and waiting to be ritually sacrificed?" Stiles screeched at him.

"Okay, we need to calm down. The alphas are still out there," Scott said, breathing normally because of his stupid werewolfitude.

"Yes, but they want Jennifer and without giving them that Cora and my dad are both dead," Stiles quickly pointed out, even he was less winded than I was!

Cora started coughing again, but it sounded a whole lot worse this time around. I walked over to where Derek had laid her down and pressed my hand to her forehead. She was scorching under my touch and I knew I had to do something fast to get her temperature down.

I started ransacking through all the drawers in the room for a cold compress. I let out a satisfied sound whenever I found one before rushing back over to Cora. I laid it on her forehead and tried to rub some warmth back into her freezing body. I saw Derek's veins turning black as he took some of her pain. Hopefully both of us working on her was giving her some sort of comfort.

"Thanks," he breathed out so no one heard but me.

I knew that was a huge step for him so I just nodded and let him handle things from there. He probably felt like he was spinning out of control as much as we all did and taking care of his sister gave him something to do. I would give him that.

"There's no way you can save her without me," Jennifer said from out of nowhere, making me jump and slip behind Derek a little. "I promise I'll help her and tell you where the sheriff is, but only if you help me get away from the alphas."

Derek moved from in front of me faster than I could reach out to grab him. "You're trying to escape!"

"I did what I did to try and stay alive, I can't be blamed for that," she responded, not even flinching away from Derek's flashing eyes and bared teeth.

"If you want to convince us that you're one of the good guys, you should heal Cora," I stated, crossing my arms and moving closer to Cora.

"I'm not going to do that until you all help me escape from them," she stayed with her original idea, smiling at me as she spoke and causing me to shiver. "I'm not stupid."

"I'm a big fan of torture to get what we want," Peter said, making me remember that he was in the room.

"That works for me," Derek said, nodding his head towards Peter.

An announcement broke off whatever anyone was going to say about that idea. "Mr. Deucalion… excuse me, just Deucalion wants you to bring the woman calling herself Jennifer Blake to the ER reception area within ten minutes time."

"That crazy ass blind alpha wolf is alone with our mother?!" I shrieked, jumping forward towards Jennifer.

She held up her hands in surrender and quickly said, "He's not going to hurt your mother! He wants perfection, the way to get that is to add a true alpha to his pack."

"The kind that doesn't have to steal their power from another. One that can rise by the force of his own will. Our little Scott," Peter said sarcastically, gesturing to my brother.

"You're a true alpha and you didn't tell me about it?!" I asked, grabbing Scott's shoulders. "That's so great! I'm so proud of you."

"My status doesn't matter," Scott said, but I saw the small smile on his lips from my praise. "We have to help her escape by taking her down to the ambulances along with Cora."

"There's no way in hell that those twins are going to let us just _walk away _with her," Stiles said, pointing out what all of us were afraid of.

"Maybe Derek and I can distract them while you guys run for it," Scott suggested, raising his eyebrows in Derek's direction. "You up for it?"

"Yeah, I'll do anything to get her out of here safely," he agreed, grabbing Cora's hand in his again.

"I'm not going anywhere without Derek so make another plan," Jennifer said, making me want to slap her straight in the face.

"You're seriously being this selfish right now? She's freakin' dying and you're worried about your fucking love connection with a guy that wants absolutely nothing to do with you? That's so pathetic," I screamed at her. Damn, I really needed to get a hold on this temper that I was developing before it got me killed.

"Are you really one to talk about making a love connection with a boy who wants nothing to do with you?" she asked, eyeing Stiles subtly. "I'm showing self-preservation; you should as well."

"Okay, I don't know what's going on here, but I don't think it's helpful," Peter said, breaking the tension between Jennifer and me. "If Derek can't go out there, I will."

"Uhm, is that really the best plan of action?" Stiles asked nervously.

Both Peter and Scott ignored him as they looked around the exam room for weapons. I was looking through drawers when I heard Stiles let out an excited noise. I looked over at him and saw that he had the defibrillation paddles in his hands and a bit of a smile on his face. He looked so cute that it actually made my heart skip a couple beats and I heard Jennifer let out an amused giggle so I flipped her off.

"Do you know how to use those?" Derek asked. When Stiles shook his head, Derek said, "Then put them down and keep looking."

I saw Scott holding up a syringe full of Epinephrine. Derek quickly responded, "We don't need to take anything out there that could make them stronger."

"Wait a second, I think I could use that as an advantage for us," Peter said, eyeing the syringe and, before we could stop him, he grabbed it from Scott and shoved it into his chest. He pushed down the plunger and the Epinephrine went into his veins.

"Holy crap, this isn't Pulp Fiction!" I screeched.

As usual, everyone ignored me and Scott ran out into the hallway behind Peter. I pushed away my fear for him and followed the others down to the basement. We found the ambulance and I watched as Derek maneuvered Cora's body inside of it. While he was doing that, I ran around the side of the ambulance to find the driver and had to slap a palm over my mouth to silence my scream.

He was hanging out of the door with his throat was slashed open. I felt hands wrap around my waist and press a kiss to the back of my head. I let out a ragged breath, it was Stiles.

"Julia!" someone called out from the entrance of the basement in a sing-song voice.

My blood ran cold in my veins when I realized that it had to be one of the alphas. Stiles grabbed me in his arms and practically tossed me into the ambulance before shutting the doors behind him. He pushed me down onto the bench and laid his body over mine, concealing me from view.

I heard him breathing hard so I reached up and placed my hand over his mouth to silence it. I saw how thankful he was for that. He leaned his body forward and pressed our foreheads together when the alpha's footsteps approached the ambulance doors. Actually I heard a weird clacking noise and remembered Isaac talking about one of the alphas having really long claws on their toes.

Stiles and I locked eyes as we waited for her footsteps retreat. When they were gone, I moved my hand from his mouth and felt him let out a big breath. He sat up and pulled me up into a sitting position before peeking out into the basement. He came back inside with us after a couple of seconds and looked relieved.

"I think we're safe for now," he stated. Then he glanced at Cora and said, "Is she breathing? I don't think she's breathing!"

I pushed up from my seat on the bench and made my way over to her quickly. I bent down and listened for breathing, but I heard nothing so I checked for a pulse. There was one, but it was so faint that I almost missed it. I didn't even pause before starting CPR on her.

When she finally started breathing on her own, I sat down besides Stiles and let out a huff of breath. CPR took a lot out of you! I was about to lean against his shoulder when I heard him muttering under his breath. When I focused in on his words, I felt my cheeks turning so red that I thought I was going to explode.

"All those times I wished I could see her kiss a girl, this was _so_ not what I had in mind."

He'd imagined me kissing a girl before?! That was so not something I wanted to hear, or at least I didn't think it was. I wanted him to say that _he_ imagined kissing _me_.

While I was thinking about that, Stiles had moved forward to talk to Cora soothingly. "Scott's going to come up with a plan to save all of us. It's surprising, I used to be the one that came up with all of the plans."

I reached up placed a hand between his shoulder blades, trying my best to comfort him, the awkwardness forgotten. He turned around and smiled at me, but it could tell that it was a fake one. I knew that there was a better time and place for this, but it didn't stop me from standing up and hugging him.

"Maybe Cora's right, you know? Maybe we are just stupid teenagers that are only good at finding bodies," he said after we'd sat back down beside of me. "I really don't want to find my dad's body."

"I thought that earlier, too. But I was wrong," I said as I wiped the tears off of his face and held his neck in my hands, pressing my forehead against his. "That's not true and we both know it. We're going to find your dad and we're going to save him. We don't just find bodies, we save lives."

He just shook his head and closed his eyes tightly as a couple more tears came out. I hated seeing him like this, so broken and afraid, it wasn't the Stiles that I knew and loved. I was thinking about kissing him when I heard something crashing outside the ambulance.

"Shit, I think the Voltron Alpha is charging," Stiles said, wiping his face and pulling away from me.

I pushed the door of the ambulance open and looked outside, but I saw that it was actually Scott with Peter. Peter's arm was around Scott's shoulder as they ran towards us. I'm guessing the Epinephrine wore off.

"I'm going back for Derek and mom," Scott said as he helped Peter get into the ambulance with Cora, Stiles, and me.

"We have another problem, Kali has the keys to the ambulance so there's no moving it," Stiles said.

I jumped out of the ambulance and adjusted my scrubs so they covered me. They must have shifted during the running that we did or what happened between Stiles and I a while ago. I wasn't sure which one…

"No, you need to get back inside and sit tight with Stiles," Scott said when he realized I was going with him.

"Like hell I am, my mother's in there with a bunch of psychotic alpha werewolves with a vendetta for us and a crazy Darach," I argued, placing my hands on my hips and staring at him defiantly. "Just try and make me stay here. You may be a werewolf, but I have a temper."

Scott and I had grown up together, he knew better than to argue with me. He sighed but nodded his head anyways, letting me come with him. We ran back into the hospital together and right into Transformer Wolf.

They completely ignored me and grabbed Scott by his throat. I was beating on their back, but I'm sure they probably weren't even feeling it. I was nothing compared to their hulking form.

"We're trying not to hurt you," it said, the voice weird and muffled.

Scott seemed to be forcing his voice out, "Then you should try harder!"

I turned around and saw that mom had walked into the room with us. I smiled at her, thankful that she was okay, and started eyeing the defibrillator.

She seemed to catch onto what I was saying because she shouted, "Hey, big morphy wolf."

The alpha dropped Scott to the ground and turned around to face mom. I'd already turned on the defibrillator so all she had to do was step forward and push it against its chest. She did just that and the electricity charged though the alpha and made the twins separate and fall to the floor.

I grabbed Scott's hand and mom's hand before running down the hallway with them. As soon as we were far enough away from them, I stopped and pulled mom into a hug. She hugged me back just as tightly as I was hugging her and I knew she was afraid that I was hurt too.

"I'm so glad that I raised such strong, independent kids. You're both so smart and selfless," she said after she'd let me go. "I'm so proud of both of you, no matter what happens."

That made my heart squeeze painfully, "We learned that from watching you, mom. You showed us how to handle ourselves and be strong and selfless."

"She's right," Scott smiled, hugging mom. Then he said, "As much as I love talking about this, we need to figure out why Deucalion let mom go. Alphas never do anything without a reason."

We were walking while we talked, so we weren't really paying attention to who was walking towards up. That's why it was such a surprise whenever I slammed into Isaac and almost fell to the ground. Thankfully, he had fast reflexes and reached out to catch me before I hit the ground.

"Why are you all here?" I asked once I'd gotten my breath back and noticed that he was here with Allison and Chris Argent.

"We're here for the same reason as you," Chris answered. "We're trying to make sure there aren't any more sacrifices."

"Okay, in that case, let's try to figure out how to get us all out of the hospital safely and keep Jennifer Blake alive. She's the key to finding Stiles' dad and saving Cora's life," Scott announced.

"I'm still not sure which teacher Jennifer Blake is," Chris said, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"She's the one with brown hair…kinda hot," Isaac said, making all of us look at him in in exasperation. "What? She is, once you get over the whole crazy-psycho-killer thing."

"You guys, I have a plan, but it's a little bit crazy," Allison said, watching her reflection in the mirrored wall of the operating room.

* * *

><p>This plan was insane, the whole Allison impersonating Jennifer thing, but it was all that we had. Scott texted Derek the plan because he was still with Jennifer in the elevator that he got trapped in. Apparently it had happened after they left Stiles and I with Cora, but I wasn't aware of it until Scott told me.<p>

While Allison and Scott were doing their part of the plan, I was with Isaac in Derek's car. We were supposed to rush into the basement and save Cora, Peter, and Stiles. I was riding shotgun while Isaac sped to the basement, almost killing us twice when he almost hit a pole and a parked car.

"How the hell did you get your license?" I asked, clutching the door handle for dear life. "You suck at driving, no offense."

I heard him laugh as he backed in beside the ambulance. I jumped out and ran over to Stiles, helping him and Peter put Cora in the backseat. I was standing with Stiles in the back of the ambulance, trying my best to get him out of it, when he grabbed my wrist.

"Jennifer's not taking law enforcement, she's taking parents," he said shakily.

"Mom," I whispered.

We took off back into the hospital at the same time, keeping up with each other nicely. I don't care how fast Stiles was, I was running to save my mom and I was going to keep up with him. I had to get to her before Jennifer did. She couldn't die, she was the only parent I had left.

We made it onto the roof just in time to see Scott walking over to stand with Deucalion. I gasped and slapped a hand over my mouth, why was he going with Deucalion? Where was mom? What was happening?

"Scott! Don't go with him, we can save my dad and your mom together! We can do this, just don't go with him," Stiles shouted, sounding completely desperate as he begged my brother to come back.

"I don't have a choice, Stiles! I have to do this in order to get our parents back, you deserve a dad and Scarlet and I deserve a mom," Scott answered, tears welling in his eyes and making them gather behind mine. "I swear I'll find your dad, Stiles, and I swear I'll find mom, Scarlet."

As soon as he finished, he turned back around and disappeared with Deucalion. I don't know why I did it, but I fell to my knees on the rooftop and started sobbing. I'd just lost my brother and my mother in less than three minutes, I was alone now. Just as I was thinking that, Stiles couched down beside of me and pulled me close to him.

"We're going to figure this out, Scar, I swear. We're going to save everyone and it's going to be okay," he whispered in my ear in a ragged voice. "We have to."

I was never going to be alone as long as I had Stiles, and I knew that. It made everything a little bit better, but not a lot.

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks a billion, trillion times to everyone who reviewed last chapter! It was the second most reviewed chapter after the first one. Can this one maybe get even more?<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**SO MUCH STARLET IS IN THIS CHAPTER AND I HOPE IT MAKES UP FOR HOW LATE THIS IS OK OK**

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><p>As much as I wanted to stay on the roof and cry about Scott, I knew that I couldn't. I had to go find Derek and take care of Cora, and find Lydia, Allison, and Isaac. I had the rest of my pack to take care of, but Scott was in danger. I hated doing it, but I pushed that thought to the back of my mind before following Stiles on the search for Derek.<p>

"Where do you think he is?" I asked, clutching Stiles' arm as we walked through the eerily lit hallways. "What if the alphas or Jennifer finds us first?"

"The alphas left with Deucalion, and I don't think Jennifer would hurt either of us. We're not exactly of use to her," Stiles told me, watching the halls and ducking into rooms for Derek. "We're going to be okay and so is Scott."

I just nodded even though I could tell that he wasn't sure that he was speaking the truth. I took a deep breath to calm down my nerves before looking into the elevator. I saw a person laying on the floor of it so I let go of Stiles and ran over to them. It was Derek.

"Derek! Hey, are you okay?" I shouted as I ran over to him. When I saw that he was unconscious, I felt my heart drop into my stomach.

I crouched down beside his head and ran my hand through his hair. He was still breathing and warm so he was just unconscious, not dead. That made a sliver over hope bloom in my chest and I let out a breath.

"Is he dead?" Stiles asked as he knelt down beside of me.

"No, he's still breathing. We just need to wake him up somehow," I said, shaking him gently. "Derek, you need to get up so we can go save your family and my brother."

I tried a couple more times, but he wasn't moving. I saw Stiles draw back and throw a punch at Derek's face. Before I could say anything, Derek threw his hand up and stopped Stiles' fist. He opened his eyes and sits up quickly, moving his head from my lap.

"What's going on? The last thing I remember was Jennifer knocking me unconscious," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "That bitch!"

"Scott went off with Deaucalion just now, Peter and Cora got away with Isaac, and the only people left in the hospital are Stiles and me," I explained to him quickly, rubbing his arm absentmindedly as I explained.

"Oh, and the police are on the way so we need to get out of here fast," Stiles added after he forced himself to look away from my hand on Derek's arm.

"I need to get to Cora," he stated, standing up and rushing down the hallway.

I stood up and started walking after him when Stiles fell into step beside me. "So, what's going on between you and Derek? I saw you touching him just now."

I rolled my eyes and bumped his shoulder with mine. "I was comforting him because he was freaking out. Were you jealous?"

His face turned three different shades of red before he spluttered out, "No! I was just curious why you were touching him because he's a little scary."

"He's, like, the least scary thing in Beacon Hills. Have you see the alphas, or the Kanima, or the Darach? They're scary," I explained. "Derek is just misunderstood and scared. I feel for him and want him to know that he has a friend in me."

He just looked at me for a second and stopped walking. I felt awkward under his scrutinizing gaze so I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth and looked down at the toes of my sneakers. I was still wearing my scrubs from earlier and my pants had some of Cora's black-goo vomit on them.

"If you're finished being weird, I really need to go home and change out of this. I have werewolf vomit on my leg," I said, turning on my heel and walking away from Stiles.

I walked out of the hospital after Derek and saw that the Argents and Isaac were standing beside Derek's care. I saw Cora slumped over in the backseat with her head in Peter's lap and knew that they were waiting for Derek to take her anywhere.

When I walked up to all of them, I saw Allison and Isaac looking at me sadly. I felt dread course through me and leaned back against Derek's car. Something else was wrong, I could feel it.

"The Darach took you mom," Isaac finally forced out, not meeting my eyes.

My stomach clenched painfully and my eyes heated up. "She what? Where's my mom?"

I felt my breath leave my lungs as I slid down to sit in front of the tire. My heart felt like it was trying to tear out of my chest and my breath kept coming faster. I was getting dizzy so I slid my head between my knees and tried to calm myself down. As soon as my breath evened out, my tears started coming out.

"Whoa, what's wrong?" Stiles asked, running over to me and crouching down beside me. He took my chin in his hand and lifted my face up so we were looking at each other. "What's wrong, Scar?"

"She took my mom," I whimpered. "I don't have anyone anymore."

He stood up and pulled me with him before cupping my cheeks in his palms. All the other people around us disappeared and it was just Stiles and me standing there. His eyes held mine and I could feel his heat radiating off of him.

"That's a lie," he whispered, "That's a lie and you know it. I'm here and that's never going to change. We're going to find your mom and we're going to find my dad, and then we're going to figure out a way to get Scott back."

I just nodded and swallowed the lump that had made itself at home in my throat. I couldn't have a meltdown right now, too many people were counting on me. I took a few more calming breaths and stepped out of Stiles' grip, ignoring the twinge in my stomach at the loss of his touch.

"After this is all over, I really need to tell you something," he said after I'd calmed myself down. "But it's not important right now."

* * *

><p>I ended up going with Isaac to Derek's loft to make sure Cora got there safely. I didn't want to be with Stiles right now because I didn't trust myself to not jump all over him. Something about losing almost everyone you care about makes you want to be close to someone. It's not conventional, but it definitely happens.<p>

I was sitting beside Cora when Isaac's frustration finally bubbled to the surface. "None of this would've happened if you hadn't been rolling around in the sheets with the actual killer! The rest of us were trying to keep innocent people from being killed. What about Erica and Boyd? And Cora? She's dying because you were fucking around with a damn Darach! Why did you even bite all of us? Were you bored? Lonely?"

I wiped Cora's forehead with a cold, wet washcloth. I hoped that she wasn't feeling all the tension in the room right now, it couldn't be good for her. She was too white to be healthy, and I wanted to do something to change that but didn't know what. I needed Jennifer Blake.

"I'm leaving to go do something productive!" Isaac shouted, the anger in his voice making me flinch.

"I'm going to stay with Cora because I promised her I would, and I'll help everyone else whenever I figure out how to help her," Derek responded as he made his way over to Cora and me.

"There is no time!" Isaac screamed. "There's a full moon coming, and that means that Sherriff Stilinski and Melissa will be dead! I'm going to go try and help why you perfect the art of doing nothing!"

Tears stung my eyes at that statement. I couldn't blame Derek for staying with Cora, I would do the same for Scott, but I still wished that he would help. I knew that I had to go with Isaac but leaving Cora was almost painful.

"I'm going with Isaac, but I don't blame you for staying with your sister. I would do the same if I were in your position," I whispered to Derek before chasing after Isaac.

We ended up parting ways because an angry Isaac wasn't something I wanted to be around right now. I didn't want to hear him talk about mom and how she might me dead. I wanted to go find Stiles and curl up with him underneath some covers, and act like nothing was wrong. But I knew I couldn't do that.

"I think I'm going to go to the Argent's and see what I can do there," I said as we walked towards the Argent's together. "You don't have to come with me, you can go do your own thing. I just thought I'd tell you where I was going just in case…"

He reached out and stopped me before moving to stand in front of me. "Hey, you're going to be safe. There's no way in hell that Stiles and I are going to let you get hurt. Do you understand me, Scarlet Lorraine McCall?"

I took a deep breath, nodded, and laid my forehead against his shoulder. He let out a deep breath and rubbed my back, breathing normally for the first time since we'd left the loft. He and I were sort of alone together right now as much as Stiles and I were. He didn't have anyone in general, both of his parents were dead and so was his brother.

"You're my family, Isaac. Maybe not by blood, but you're my family," I whispered, clutching the back of his shirt in my fists. "I just want you to know that you do have a family."

I felt him take a ragged breath and heard it rattle around in his chest. "Thank you, Scar. I haven't had a real family in such a long time."

I loved that I could provide Isaac a family after he'd been through so much. I thought my dad's drinking and walking out on us was bad, but at least he didn't beat us. Well, there was that incident with Scott and the staircase, but I don't think that really counts. Plus Scott doesn't even really remember that too well, if at all.

"We're going to get mom back and we're all going to be a family," I whispered as we parted. "I swear."

* * *

><p>When I got the Argent's house, I saw that Allison, Chris, and Stiles were all back in Chris' office. I wandered back there and stood on the other side of Allison. They didn't even pause in their conversation when I walked in, they just glanced over at me and nodded.<p>

"Just because my name's on the door doesn't mean I'm going to be the next one taken," Chris said, eyeing Stiles. "I haven't really been living up to my 'Guardian' role as of late."

"It can't be a coincidence that they took Stiles' dad and Scarlet's mom," Allison pointed out, smiling at me sheepishly when she saw me wince.

"Someone put the name 'Argent' in big, block letters on the doors of the hospital. I think it's a warning," Stiles said, crossing his arms over his chest as he spoke.

"I think that Ms. Morrell is behind the warning, she knows a lot more than she should to be just a guidance counselor. Maybe she's trying to help us," Allison theorized.

"We need to hurry because the lunar eclipse is two freakin' nights away and our parents may already be dead," Stiles cried out suddenly.

"I don't think so," I disagreed after I pushed down the panicky feeling of my mother being dead. "Jennifer is too smart and cunning to do that, I think she'd moving her pieces into place."

"Yes, but you're one of those pieces, dad," Allison pointed out, clutching her dad's arm.

"I know, that's why we're not waiting around to see her next move," he said, patting her hand and smiling at her sadly before pulling out his map that Allison had showed us a few days ago.

Stiles was frowning whenever he said, "If we go after her, that means that you're probably going to get taken, too."

"I'm different; I'm carrying a .45 caliber pistol and I'm not afraid to use it," Chris stated. "She can heal from a shot to the leg and slashes to her face, but I wonder how she would cope with half her skull blown off."

I looked over at Stiles and saw that we both had reluctant expressions on our faces. It was one thing for him to say that he was going to fight her, but it was a completely different thing when your only parent was taken. He was talking a big game now, but I'd seen Jennifer Blake keep going after Sherriff Stilinski emptied a magazine of bullets into her without making her pause.

"Okay, I think the placement of the sacrifices has to do with the strength of the telluric current under those spots," Chris said, going into planning mode. He pointed to a couple of places on the school and said, "She might return to a place where she failed to complete a sacrifice the first time."

"So does that mean that the bank is a logical starting point?" I asked. "I mean, she planned on Deaton dying there, but Sco- uhm-my brother got there first and stopped her."

It was almost a physical pain to say his name right now. I'd watched him walk away without putting up a fight. What kind of twin sister was I? He would've fought with all of his might to keep me safe, but I couldn't return the favor? I was pathetic.

Stiles seemed to sense my thoughts because he crossed the room and took my hand in his. Our arms were pressed together and I took a deep breath as he warmth seeped into me. I don't know what I'd be doing if I didn't have him right now, but I suspected that it wouldn't be very good.

"Maybe we should get Lydia to help us," Allison suggested.

"Why would we do that?" Chris asked, confusion coloring his voice.

"She has a way of finding dead bodies without trying," Stiles answered, rubbing his thumbs over my knuckles soothingly as he talked.

"Is she a psychic?" Chris asked.

"She's definitely something," I supplied.

After we'd finished out discussion about Lydia, Stiles and I followed the Argent's into another room. They opened a door and started pulling out various weapons. I knew my jaw was hanging open when I saw just how much they were bringing with them to the bank. A couple pistols, a crossbow, a rifle, machine guns, and the ring daggers I'd seen Allison use before. Oh wow.

"I thought you guys were retired?" Stiles questioned, making me look over and see that we had matching expressions yet again.

"Retired, yes; defenseless, no."

"Make sure you keep your phone on just in case Scott tries to call, Scar," Allison advised when our gazes met over the table covered in weapons.

"I don't think that's going to happen," I said sadly, looking down at the toes of my shoes that also happened to have Cora-vomit on them. Damn, that girl got some distance.

"Hey, Scott's only doing what he thinks is right for the people that he cares about," Chris consoled in the way that only a dad could.

I heard someone knocking lightly on the doorframe, and whenever I turned around I saw that it was Isaac.

"I can't use a gun or crossbow, but…" he trailed off as he extended his claws. "I'm getting pretty good with these."

* * *

><p>Allison and Isaac went with Chris to the bank while Stiles and I went to get Lydia. I breathed in the familiar smell of Stiles' Jeep and let it calm my frazzled nerves. It was like a second home to me, to be honest, I spent a ton of time in here. Stiles still had my hand in his as he drove through the dark streets. I don't know if he realized it or not, but I was going to be the one to tell him. It was comforting me, too.<p>

After we parked in front of her house, Stiles and I made our way to the door. I knocked and Mrs. Martin answered, looking at us and then the clock in the hallway. Then her eyes traveled down to the black stains on the side of my pink scrub pants. I was too strung out to even be ashamed of my stains, I had bigger fish to fry.

"I know it's late, Mrs. Martin, but can we talk to Lydia. I'm worried about her after what happened, we wanted to make sure she was okay," Stiles said after he realized that I wasn't going to talk to her.

"She's up in her room," she finally answered, jarring herself out of her daze. "That's nice of you all to do."

We were too far away when she said the last part to respond, and I was grateful for that. There had always been something about Lydia's mom that rubbed me the wrong way.

"Hey, Lydia, it's us. Can we come in?" I asked, knocking on her door gently. "Well, we're coming in anyway, I hope you're dressed."

Stiles told her about Scott leaving and about Jennifer Blake. I was sitting on the edge of her bed, picking my nails to bits and wiping the blood on my pants. I knew I'd have to toss these out whenever I finally changed out of them; they were ruined.

"There's no way Scott would _willingly_ join the alphas!" Lydia exclaimed in exasperation.

"The look on his face at the time suggests otherwise," Stiles quipped back.

"I can help with my human Geiger counter for death," Lydia suggested, tugging her jacket tighter around her. "I just don't know how to turn it on and off.

"Jennifer seemed surprised that I was a banshee, she wanted me dead before she knew about it," Lydia continued to muse to us.

"To me that says that she wanted you dead for something that you know or something that she _thinks_ you know," I said, chewing on the bottom of my lip thoughtfully. "That mark on your neck makes you look tough, by the way."

She winked at me and said, "I'm tough and cute, don't you forget it!"

* * *

><p>Stiles, Lydia, and I all camped out in my living room that night. There was no way I was staying completely on my own at night so I made Lydia come. Stiles said that he was going to "protect" us, but he didn't have my mom's bat so I was skeptical.<p>

That morning wasn't the same without Scott. Lydia and I got ready together in silence as Stiles sat downstairs by himself. I was a fidgety, nervous wreck by the time I tried to do my hair. My hands were shaking too badly for me to do anything with my hair, but thankfully Lydia took mercy on me.

"Hey, why don't you sit down and let me do your hair for you?" she asked after she finished her lipstick.

I smiled at her gratefully before letting out a deep breath as I felt her fingers moving through my hair. It always relaxed me whenever someone played with my hair. Mom used to do it for me whenever I had nightmares when I was younger. That thought sent a pang through my chest so strong that it made me wince.

I was thankful that Lydia didn't point it out. She just focused on my hair and twisting it into some style that I couldn't see. I wished more often than not that I could be as strong as she was. If you'd ask, she'd say that she wasn't, but I knew differently. Someone had tried to kill her less than twenty-four hours ago, but she was in better shape than I was.

Before I could comment on that, she let out a noise and stepped back from me. "I think I outdid myself on this. You're hair looks spectacular!"

I trusted her so I didn't look in the mirror before exiting the bathroom. I knew I had bags under my eyes and they were probably still red from crying so much last night. I remember how rough I looked when I was doing my makeup earlier, I'm sure it was just worse now.

We were all walking through into school when Lydia said, "I can't believe that Aiden isn't texting me back! You'd think my hotness would keep him clenched."

I just ignored her and looked up at Isaac as he joined up with us. "I texted Scott about Chris going missing too, but he didn't respond. Not that I thought he would, but I figured I'd try."

I felt the color drain from my face as what Isaac said registered in my head. Chris was missing now? What the hell were we all supposed to do without anyone?

I looked over at Stiles for help, but he seemed to be having his own trouble. His face was going white and I saw him struggling for breath, he was having a panic attack. I glanced down at his hands and saw that they were shaking. I needed to get him somewhere else before he had a total meltdown in the middle of the hallway.

I grabbed his hand in mine and yanked him towards the locker room. Lydia and Isaac watched us with big eyes, but neither of them followed. I pushed that to the back of my mind and focused on Stiles, he needed me.

He crashed into a row of lockers and sank to the floor as his breathing got faster. I had no idea what to do because I was trying so hard to not start freaking out along with him. I realized that I had to do something to get his mind off of things.

"Hey, you need to think about something else. Good things, happy things like friends and family," I said. Then I saw his face and instantly backtracked, "Okay, maybe not family.

"You need to breathe slower."

"Can't," he forced out, clutching his throat.

A thought crossed my mind that was so insane that I knew it might work. I took his face in my hands and said, "Stiles, look at me, okay?"

He forced his gaze up to me and I took a deep breath before bending down and connecting our lips. I'd dreamed a billion, trillion times about kissing Stiles, but this situation never crossed my mind. Not crouching down in the middle of the dirty, disgusting locker room that smelled like dirty socks and sweat.

I pushed that to the back of my mind and focused on kissing him. His lips were really soft and slowly and clumsily starting to move against mine. My stomach was literally in my throat and every other thought in my mind was gone completely. The only thing I could think about was Stiles and how we were finally kissing each other.

I reluctantly pulled away from him and opened my eyes to see something that I hope I never forgot. Stiles was looking at me with so much wonder and adoration in his eyes that my entire body filled up with warmth. I'd never seen anyone look at anyone like that before outside of Disney movies.

"How did you know to do that?" he whispered to me.

"Uhm, I think I've heard Lydia say that holding your breath can stop a panic attack. Whenever I kissed you, you held your breath," I explained, my voice as low and hushed as his was.

"That was really smart," he said, reaching out and rubbing his thumb over my cheekbone. "You're really smart."

"If I were really smart, I would tell you to make a couple appointments with the guidance counselor." I tried to laugh of his compliment, but I knew my cheeks were red.

His face quickly became serious again and he said, "I bet Morrell knows why Jennifer thought that Lydia knew something that she didn't. Why didn't we think about that before?"

He was up on his feet within a couple of seconds and dragging me behind him before I could even process what he'd said. We found Lydia at her locker, and I told her what we were doing as Stiles led us to Morrell's office. Well, I told her as much as I could with my head still spinning about my kiss with Stiles.

He slammed the door open and I saw a girl sitting in a chair in front of the desk. "Y'all gotta wait your turn, I've got some serious issues to work on."

"Hey, you're name's Danielle. You were friends with Heather, we met at her party," Stiles said suddenly, making me tense as he mentioned his dead friend.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking to the counselor," she said with so much sass that it almost made me giggle. "I've been waiting for twenty minutes, and that's weird because Ms. Morrell is never late."

"She's right, whenever I was seeing her at the beginning of the year she was always on time," Lydia agreed.

"I bet she's not late, she's missing," Stiles concluded.

"I don't care if she's missing or late, I want to know what she knows," I said, walking over to her desk and searching through the drawers of it.

Stiles nodded and came over to help me. I saw a couple pictures, both of young kids, just sitting on her desk. It was a bit odd, but I just shrugged it off. _Everything _was odd in Beacon Hills.

"Uhm, Lydia, why do you always draw the same tree?" Stiles asked.

I raised an eyebrow as I turned around to look at what he was talking about. He had a manila folder in his hands with Lydia's name on the tab. He spread out all the sketches of the exact same tree that she'd drawn. When I saw exact, I literally mean it looked like she drew one and then traced the other perfectly.

"Oh wow, you definitely have more issues than I do. You can have my slot," Danielle said before standing up and walking out of the office.

I ignored her exit and focused back in on the tree. It looked weird, but I couldn't figure out why. "Hey, this looks weird. I don't think it's a tree."

Stiles seemed to understand what I was saying because he turned the paper over slowly. "That's because it's the roots instead of the branches."

"That's got to be the Nemeton!" I screeched suddenly. "That's where the Darach is keeping our parents! It had to be!"

We all looked up and seemed to lock eyes with each other. Then we ran out of the office and towards the front doors and Stiles' Jeep outside. We were almost there when I saw a face that I thought I'd never see again.

"Scarlet, you've grown up so much!" my dad said, his face completely changing whenever he saw me. "You look so much like you're mother."

He walked up to me and tried to touch my shoulder, but I stepped to the side before we touched. "Like you would know that. You haven't seen me in years. I hope there's another reason that you're talking to us, because if not you're going to be sorely disappointed."

My temper was flaring and it only got worse when I felt tears burning my eyes. He'd left me and now just expected me to let him back in like nothing happened. The only thing that helped me through it was Stiles' hand firmly grasped in mine.

"I'm actually here to talk to Stiles about his dad," he said, forcing himself to look over at Stiles. "We found his cruiser in the school parking lot and it's been there overnight. He's officially missing."

I squeeze his hand and moved closer to him, our shoulders would've been touching if he wasn't so much taller than me. Knowing that your father is missing and actually _knowing_ that your father's officially missing was hard. I had to be here, we were each other's rocks.

Reluctantly, we both followed him into an empty classroom. Whatever he was saying was keeping us from finding our parents. He wasn't a good person, and I really didn't want to be around him any longer than I had to be. I actually think I'd rather spend time with Peter than him, and that's saying something because I can't stand Peter.

"Stiles, why am I getting the feeling you know something that could help us find your dad?" _he_ asked, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"If I did, why would I not tell you?" Stiles barked back.

"If it meant helping your dad, why wouldn't you?" _he_ retorted back quickly.

"So you're asking me to tell you what I wouldn't not tell you?" Stiles asked, I realized that he was trying to convince _him_ so he would stop asking questions. I'd seen him do it a billion times before.

"First, I have no idea what you just said," _he _said, then went on, "Second, how about you just help me help you?"

"Well, I don't know how to help you help me tell you something that would help you if I don't know it," Stiles said, his face completely calm as he confused _him_.

"Are you doing this on purpose, Stilinski?"

"He and I don't know anything, okay? Stop being an ass and go find the sheriff," I snapped, rubbing my thumb over Stiles' knuckles soothingly.

"Where are you all's other friends? And your brother?" _he_ asked, realizing that both of us were done with his questioning.

"What friends are you talking about?"

"Scott, and Isaac Lahey, Allison Argent, and these twins: Ethan and Aiden," _he_ said, reading off of his phone as he spoke. "I was told your all's whole little clique didn't show up to school today other than the two of you and Lydia Martin."

"We don't have a clique." Stiles and I actually spoke at the same time.

"Come on, you guys," frustration was clear in _his_ voice. "There's been a pretty disturbing amount of violent activity in this county in the last few months, several murders tied to this school. I don't know what's going on here, but it's serious."

"We both know that, you don't have to remind us. We've been here and were actually in the school that night of the break in," I screamed at him. "Stop treating us like we're delinquents and go find Stiles' dad."

_He_ was taken aback by my outburst but recovered quickly. "Stiles, do you have somewhere to stay tonight?"

"He's with me," someone said from behind Stiles and I.

I turned around and saw that Dr. Deaton was standing in the doorway. He had a habit of appearing out of nowhere and doing things that were odd. There was something about him that was familiar, but I couldn't figure out what it was. But then again, I had a lot of my mind and I could be going crazy. It's totally plausible.

* * *

><p>Stiles followed behind Deaton in his Jeep, and the silence between us was almost painful. The kiss was something that I'd wanted for as long as I could remember, but maybe I'd misjudged his look. He was probably disgusted with me for kissing him but happy that he'd stopped having a panic attack.<p>

When we pulled into the animal clinic, I saw Allison, Lydia, and Isaac standing outside waiting for us. I got out of the Jeep without looking at Stiles and walked up to them. Lydia automatically realized something was wrong and squeezed my arm before we all followed Deaton inside.

"We have to figure out where the Nemeton is. That's the only way we're going to save our parents," Allison said, looking at both Stiles and me.

"I has to be on a telluric current or at the convergence of the currents," Stiles supplied from his spot across the table from me. "What do you think, Scar?"

He was begging me with us eyes to say something. He seemed to be just as confused about what happened between us as I did. I shouldn't be so rash with him, we could figure this out together. I mean, after we figure everything else out and save our parents. Whatever.

"Maybe you're right," I agreed. Then I turned to Allison and asked, "What did Gerard say about it? Didn't you say that he'd been there before with your dad?"

"He claims that he can't remember where it is," she said, disbelieve coloring her voice.

"There might be a way to find the Nemeton, but we're going to need Scott to do it," Deaton said, drawing all of our attention over to him.

"I'll text him to meet us," I said, pulling out my phone. "If I say it'll help mom, he'll jump at the chance. I know my brother, his family and his pack are the most important things to him."

He texted me back surprisingly fast and our meet up spot was set. Deaton and Stiles both knew better than to try and get me to stay with the others so they didn't even suggest it.

The drive was short and as soon as I saw Scott, I ran full-force at him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs tightly around his waist as I inhaled his scent. I felt hysterical tears threatening to fall, I was so glad that he was okay!

"I'm so glad that you're safe! I love you, even if you are too noble for your own damn good," I whispered in his ear after he'd set me back down on my feet.

He smiled at me sheepishly and wrapped his arm tightly around my shoulder. He addressed all of us whenever he spoke, "None of the alphas know where the Nemeton is. I've already asked them."

"Are you going to tell them if we figure out where it is?" Stiles asked.

"I can't stop the Darach without them," Scott answered.

* * *

><p>"What exactly is the plan here?" Scott asked after we'd returned to the clinic.<p>

"Essentially, you, Allison, and Stiles are going to be surrogate sacrifices for your parents," Deaton explained clinically in a way that only he could.

"So we're going to die _for_ them?" Stiles asked.

"But he can bring us back," Scott quickly said, catching my fearful glance.

"You can… you can can't you?" I asked, my throat tightening as what was happening finally set in.

''You remember the part where I said it was dangerous? If it goes right, the three of you will be dead for a few seconds, but there's something else you need to think about," Deaton explained further. "This is a dangerous thing for more reasons than one. You'll be giving power back to the Nemeton, a place that hasn't had power for a long time. This kind of power is like a magnet, it attracts the supernatural. The kind of things that a family like the Argents can fill a bestiary with. It will draw them here, like a beacon."

"That doesn't sound like anything worse than what we've already seen," Allison said, shrugging her shoulders.

"You're all about to die for a few seconds and you're shrugging?!" I said before I could stop myself. Then I turned to Scott, "I'm going instead of you. I have to go, you can't die. Without you, the alphas aren't going to help and everything's going to go crazy."

"No!" Stiles and Scott both told me. Scott continued, "There's no way in hell I'm letting you do this. If I had my way, I wouldn't let Stiles or Allison go either, but they have no choice. I do and I chose to go in your place. There's nothing you can do about it either, punk."

I tried to smile but I'm sure it was more of a wince. "I hate your ethics sometimes, but I know you're right."

"There's more that I haven't mentioned yet," Deaton said after Scott and I finished our sibling bonding. "Going under will have an effect on all three of you. You won't be able to see it, but you'll feel it every day for the rest of your lives. It'll be a kind of darkness around your heart, and permanent, like a scar."

"Like a tattoo," Scott said, absentmindedly rubbing his bicep.

Deaton led all of us over to three tubs full of water with white things floating in it. Whenever I looked closer, I could tell that they were mistletoe berries. I couldn't help but remember when we'd held Isaac underneath the water and how scary that was. I couldn't even imagine watching _three_ of my best friends do it.

"Okay, you all have to have something that belongs to your parents. What did you bring?" Deaton asked.

"Um, I got my dad's badge," Stiles stuttered out, holding up the mangled star in his hand. "Jennifer kind of crushed it in her hand, so I tried hammering it out… still doesn't look that great…"

"It doesn't need to look good as long as it's got meaning," Deaton said, smiling warmly at Stiles. "What about you two?"

"Is that an actual silver bullet?" Isaac asked Allison in shock.

"Yeah, my dad made it. It's kind of a ceremonial thing. Whenever one of us finishes learning all the skills to be a hunter, we forge a silver bullet as a testament to the code," Allison explained, clutching the bullet in her hand tightly.

"Scott?"

I looked over at my brother and saw him holding up mom's Timex. "Dad got mom this watch when she was first hired at the hospital."

"She used to say that it was the only thing in their marriage that ever worked," I said, tears clouding my vision as I remembered her telling us that.

"Okay, the three of you can get into the tubs now," Deaton instructed. "Each of us will hold you down until you're essentially… Well, dead. But it's not just someone to hold you under, it needs to be someone who can pull you back. Someone that has a strong connection to you, a kind of emotional tether."

After he stopped talking, I made my way over to Scott. It only made sense that I was going to be his tether, I mean I was his _twin sister_.

"No, Scarlet, you need to go with Stiles," Deaton said, making me look over at him.

I raised an eyebrow at his directions, but I followed them nonetheless. I saw his face turning pink and I knew mine was matching more than likely. I walked over to him and wait for him to sit down before placing my hands on his shoulders. I looked over at Allison and saw that _Isaac _was holding onto her. I'm sure that that tore Scott to bits inside, but he was too nice to say anything.

"Scott, just in case you come back and I don't, you should know that your dad is in town," Stiles said, looking at Scott.

"Don't you dare say something like that! You're both going to come back and so is Allison and then we're going to get our parents. There aren't any more options," I said with a stomp of my foot.

"Regardless of that," Stiles said, standing up and taking my cheeks in his hands. "I want to do something just in case something does happen to me."

He pulled my mouth back to his and kissed me harshly. I forgot about Scott being less than two feet away, I forgot about all of our friends being around us, hell, I even forgot about our parents being missing. The only thing that I could think about was Stiles Stilinski and that was alright for that moment.

When he pulled back, the look from earlier was clear on his face. It was something that I would never forget, the wonder and adoration, it was the Stiles that I always wanted.

He sat back down in the tub and placed his hand over mine, giving it a squeeze, before dropping it back into the water. Deaton counted to three before Lydia, Isaac, and I pushed the others into the water. They all struggled and water splashed around for a couple of seconds before everything became too still.

They were dead.

* * *

><p><strong>Thaaaaaaaaaanks for reading :)<strong>


	15. Chapter 15

**I know that this chapter is 528,224,903 years too late, but I've had a ton of shit that I've had to do bc I'm a senior. **

**On the other hand, there's going to be one more chapter and it's probs not going to be as long as all the others. I also have a few questions for all of you, but I'll leave those on the last chapter. **

**There's a link to Scarlet's outfit on my profile like usual, yeah. **

* * *

><p>I was bound to have a heart attack or a stroke before the age of fifty if I kept going through stressful situations that I do. I'd been sitting against the wall for almost ten hours before I ended up falling asleep before I could stop myself. Isaac and Lydia had passed out on the metal slabs in the operating room, but I wasn't going to leave Scott and Stiles. There was no way that they were going to regain their consciousness and see that I'd left them alone. I knew they'd do the same thing if I'd convinced Scott to let me go under.<p>

I jolted awake when I heard splashing. I was on my feet and between Stiles and Scott's tubs before I even fully opened my eyes.

"I saw it! I know where it is!" Scott said, gasping for air.

"We passed it, there's a stump, this _huge_ tree. Well, it used to be huge, but not anymore. It was cut down, but it's still big, though, very big," Stiles said, getting out of the water and letting me wrap him up in the towel that I was holding.

"Scar, you saw the Nemeton, too! It was that night that we were all out looking for the body. The night that Peter bit me," Scott said, his eyes locking with mine as he held onto me.

"I was there too, in the car with my mother. We almost hit someone," Allison supplied, drying her hair with the towel that Isaac had handed her earlier.

"That was me! You almost hit me," Scott said, suddenly putting a couple pieces together. "We can find it."

"What?" Allison asked.

"You guys were out for a long time," Isaac said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"How long is a long time?" Stiles asked, shivering slightly and stepping closer to me without thinking.

"16 hours," Deaton answered after he glanced at the watch on his wrist. "There's less than four hours before the moon rises tonight."

Scott ran out to Stiles' Jeep to grab the extra clothes that I insisted they keep inside it. I learned early in the werewolf-game to always be prepared. You never knew what was going to happen.

"So, do you want to talk about what happened before I went under?" Stiles asked, rubbing his hair awkwardly as he avoided my eyes.

"Which time? The first kiss when you were having a panic attack or the one when you were afraid that you were going to die?" I asked, chewing on my bottom lip. "I'm sorry, that was harsh."

"No, you're right. I don't know why I did it then, but I'm sort of glad that I did," he said, taking my hands in his and stilling their nervous movements. "I've wanted to kiss you for years, Scarlet, but I've never thought I was good enough to. I always thought that I was going to be your best friend and that was it. I know that this is a terrible time for all of this to happen, but chaos breeds chaos, right?"

I rolled my eyes and kissed his nose before standing up when Scott walked back in. "Get dressed and warm, we have a couple parents and a Nemeton to find."

* * *

><p>"No, dude, you're not going back with them!" Stiles shouted at Scott after he told us his plan of rejoining Deucalion.<p>

"I made a deal with Deucalion, and I can't back out," Scott argued.

"Does anyone think that sounds a lot like making a deal with the devil?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips and staring at him angrily.

"Why does it matter, anyway? He's not trying to kill you or anything, the killings are because of Miss Blake, er, the Darach," Isaac replied from his spot _too close_ to Allison.

"Because I still don't think that we have any chance of beating Jennifer without their help," Scott explained helplessly. "I don't know how to make you understand, but I know I have to do this."

Hysterical fear bubbled in my stomach at the thought of losing Scott to the alphas _again_ this soon. "Deaton, he listens to you more than he listens to any of us. Tell him what he's doing is wrong!"

"I'm not so sure it is. Circumstances like this sometimes require you align yourself with people you'd normally consider enemies," he said, fucking walking fortune cookie.

"So we're going to trust Deucalion? The guy that calls himself death, destroyer of worlds? We're going to trust that guy?" Isaac asked Deaton in disbelief.

"I'm not _trusting_ him, no, but we could use him to our advantage. Deucalion may be the enemy, but he could also be the bait," Scott finally said, making all of us reluctantly nod.

I saw Isaac and Scott tense before looking towards the lobby of the clinic. They'd heard something that we couldn't hear, and considering what was happening that wasn't a good sign. When I heard something clatter out there, I grabbed Stiles' hand in mine and held his arm with my other one.

Before any of us could react, Ethan walked into the room with us. Stiles pulled me behind him and I felt my face heating up, he was trying to protect me! Maybe something had changed between us from our kiss and maybe it wasn't going to ruin things. A girl could hope, right?

"I'm looking for Lydia," he said, sensing how uneasy everyone in the room was about him being there.

Lydia stepped forward and looked more confident than I'd ever seen her. She'd grown so much in the last year, I was incredibly proud of the steps she'd taken. She was far from the superficial, airheaded girl that I'd known growing up. Instead of being broken by all the things she'd been through, she rose above it and got stronger.

"What do you want, Ethan?"

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't need your help so much," he told her.

"With what?"

I could feel the tension in the air as we anxiously waited for Ethan to answer her. I wasn't as gung-ho about working with the alphas as my brother. I wanted to stay out of their way, to be honest.

"Stopping my brother and Kali…from killing Derek."

* * *

><p>After a heated argument with both my brother and Stiles, I left with Lydia and Ethan. I didn't fully trust either of the twins, even if they weren't the ones killing. They did kill Boyd, I'd seen it, and they'd had some part in killing Erica. Nothing told me that they wouldn't do the same to Lydia and I, but I could leave her to face it by herself.<p>

When we got to the loft, I felt a little bit of relief flow through me when I saw Cora standing with Derek. She seemed to sense it because she looked over at me and nodded almost unnoticeably, but I saw it. She and I would never be friends, but that didn't mean I didn't care about her wellbeing.

"We know about the lunar eclipse, so don't think Kali's going to sit around waiting for it to level the playing field. She's coming, and my brother's coming with her," Ethan told Derek, drawing my attention away from Cora.

Peter was standing to the side of all of us and I saw him shrug before speaking, "Good enough for me. What about you, Derek?"

I looked over at Derek along with everyone else, and I saw that he was torn. "You want me to run from your pack?"

Peter's usual sarcasm was present whenever he responded. "No, I want you to stay here and get slaughtered by an alpha with a psychotic foot fetish. Of course I want you to run, sprint, gallop, and leap your way the hell out of this town and take my niece with you."

"If you want to fight and die for something, that's fine with me, but do it for something meaningful," Cora told her brother, squeezing his arm.

I saw Derek flinch a little before he asked Cora, "How do you know I'm going to lose?"

I moved closer to Lydia and wrapped my arm around her waist when I saw Peter's gaze flit over to her. I didn't trust him when it came to her after last year. Well, I didn't really trust him _in general_ after what happened last year, but I trusted him even less when it came to a certain strawberry blonde.

"We don't, but I'll bet she has an idea. Don't you, Lydia?" he patronized.

"I don't know anything," she answered quickly, her nails digging into my arm as her anxiety built up.

"But you feel something, don't you?" Peter pressed.

Derek seemed to believe Peter, or think that something was up with Lydia, because he asked, "What do you feel, Lydia?"

I looked over at her and saw the pallor of her skin. She was really afraid of what she was feeling, but then again I would be too if I were a banshee.

"I feel like... I'm standing in a graveyard."

Oh, that was something I _really_ wanted to hear right about now.

* * *

><p>Derek, Cora, and Peter had barely been gone for ten minutes when Kali and Aiden came. They burst through the door and made the alarm start going off. I clapped my hands over my ears and tried to block out the ear-splitting sound. Kali seemed to have the same idea, except she used her feet to knock it off the wall and silence it.<p>

"Where is he?" she asked with a snap of her fingers.

I tried my best to not look like I was lying when I said, "I think he said that he was heading out to do some shopping, rung a few errands, the usual…werewolf afternoon."

I could practically feel the frustration pouring off of Kali and it terrified me. "Who do you think you're talking to? I don't care whose sister you are, I'll shred you."

"Someone in desperate need of a pedicure. I'd be happy to give you a referral," Lydia quipped from beside me, trying to take the attention off of me.

I winced when I heard a growl rattling her chest. We were both going to be bits underneath her nasty-ass toenails soon. I could practically feel it.

"Did someone take their assignment a little too seriously?" Kali asked Aiden, turning to face him.

Aiden seemed to be taken aback when he answered her, "She is not the problem and you know it."

"Maybe the problem is where your loyalties lie," she said, walking over to him and making me wince as her toenails clicked against the floor.

Lydia's hand clutched mine as she said, "Oh god, this is about to get violent, isn't it?"

Ethan didn't candy-coat it, "Probably."

I figured that the violence Lydia was sensing would come from the two arguing alphas in front of us, but I was wrong. Jennifer Blake crashed through the ceiling of the loft. I actually screamed before I could stop myself and held onto Lydia. The last thing I expected to happen just happened and all hell was about to break loose.

"So, who wants to go first?" she asked, looking up at all of us dramatically.

Kali was the first one to move forward and attack Jennifer. I just shook my head at how stupid it was for her to attack the Darach, she was all-powerful. Then again, Kali never struck me as an intelligent person.

Jennifer pushed her away without even touching her and I felt Lydia's grip on my hand tighten. I followed her eyes and figured out why, the twins were taking off their shirts and transforming into Voltron Wolf. Jennifer just reached up and tore them apart, literally _tore_ them apart, and tossed their bodies to the side.

As much as I hated to say it, they alphas were the only change that Lydia and I had of surviving. I let out the breath I'd been holding when I saw that Kali was back on her feet. The Darach just laughed and strutted over to her, looking at her defiantly.

"That's right, Kali. Look at me, look at my face! Do you know what it takes to be able to look like this? To be normal?" she asked, completely going off of her rocker.

The hair on the sides of Kali's face started sprouting and I heard a growl rattling around in her chest. "I don't care."

"It takes power. Power like this," Jennifer said, holding her arms out beside her body.

The glass from the broken skylight started to float around her. The force of the wind whipping around the loft had my hair tearing its way out of the bun at the back of my neck. Lydia elbowed me and pointed up at the sky, and I saw all of the clouds gathering just above the skylight.

"I should've – I should've ripped your head off!" Kali barked out as fiercely as she could with all of the wind that was hitting her.

I saw Jennifer roll her eyes before flicking her wrist towards Kali. All the shards of glass raced at her and embedded themselves into her skin. She fell to the ground and I didn't have to have super-hearing to know that her heart stopped beating. No one lays that still when they're still alive.

I heard rustling from the other side of the loft, and when I looked over I saw the twins getting back up. I felt blind hope swell in my chest that they were going to keep us safe, even though I knew it was stupid. There was no way that they could beat a Darach, she was all-powerful.

They ran at her, merged together, and she wrapped her hands around their neck. I closed my eyes tight, but nothing could shield me from the sound of their neck snapping. I heard Lydia let out a strangled sob and realized that she had _actual_ feelings for Aiden. I seriously needed to talk to that girl about the type of boys she had feelings for.

"What's the line Coach likes to say? The bigger they are…" Jennifer said smugly.

She then turned on her heels to look over at Lydia with a predatory gaze. I pulled her body behind mine and stood with my head up. I was going to protect Lydia in any way possible, she couldn't die on my watch. Jennifer giggled and used her power to knock me over to the side, and I felt the glass dig into my exposed thigh. I was stupid to wear a dress, I learned now.

"Scarlet!" Lydia screamed, and I heard her heels clacking on the ground. They came to a sudden stop and she whimpered, "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to do what you do best, Lydia. I want you to scream," she said evilly.

Her face shifted suddenly and became milky white and covered in scars. I'd never seen her real face before, only the one she showed in class. I dropped to my knees and tried to block out the sound when Lydia finally started screaming. I understood now what it meant when people called it a banshee _wail_ because that was the only way to describe what was coming out of her mouth.

She finally stopped and I pulled my hands away from my ears, expecting to see blood or something on them. They were clean, but I could still clearly hear ringing in my ears from her. I made my way shakily over to Lydia and wrapped her in my arms. She was sobbing and shaking so badly that it was hard to keep her in my grip.

"Hey, it's okay. Everything's okay, I'm here, you're not by yourself," I told her, trying my best to comfort her. "We're okay, Scott will find us and save us. We have to trust him okay?"

The door of the loft flew open and Derek ran inside with Cora just behind him. Cora ran over to us and helped me try to calm Lydia down. Derek looked over at us and nodded before going to confront the deranged thing.

"I did this for us, for anyone who's ever been their victims," the Darach said, pleading with him to understand what she was doing.

"Stop talking to me like a politician! Stop trying to convince me of your cause!" Derek shouted at her, his frustration bubbling to the surface.

While they were talking, Lydia and I made our way over to the twins with Cora. Lydia disentangled herself from me and touched the Voltron Wolf.

"Fine, I'll convince you of someone else's: Scott's. You can save his mother, Scarlet's mother, and Stiles' father!" Jennifer said, drawing my attention over to them.

I was on my feet and over with them before I realized it. "What are you talking about? This better not be one of your crazy mind games because I am so damn finished with them. This isn't a game, they're people that don't deserve to die."

She just ignored me and continued to only talk to Derek. "I need a guardian, and that's a role that can either be filled by the three parents I was forced to take, or by you."

I saw a bunch of emotions flash across his face before he said, "I can't help you. I'm not even an alpha anymore."

"That doesn't matter. All I need is for you to help me get Deucalion in the right place at the right time," she argued, a wicked smile on her milky face, at least I think it was a smile because I couldn't really tell.

"There are three dead alphas, alphas that you killed. Why do you need Derek to help you?" I asked as my confusion bubbled out of my mouth. "You seem to be doing just fine on your own."

"Do you ever shut up?!" she screamed at me before tossing me back against a wall.

That was all I remember before everything went dark.

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><p>"Come on, Scar, we have to go! We have to go help find your mom," I heard Lydia's voice, but it sounded miles away. "Please get up!"<p>

I groaned and forced my eyes open to see Lydia and Cora all staring down at me. I sat up slowly, clutching Lydia's arm, and waited until everything stopped spinning to stand. I probably had a concussion judging by the pain in the back of my head, but that was the least of my worries.

"We have to go to Deaton's place. The twins are already there, but Cora and I stayed behind for you," Lydia explained quickly as she led me out to her car. "Just trust me, okay?"

The drive was faster than I knew was legal, but I didn't fight Lydia. She'd developed feelings for Aiden and needed him to be safe. That made an image of Stiles flash into my mind and made my heart give a painful squeeze. I prayed that he was safe and okay, but something told me that he wasn't.

I pushed that away and hoped that one of the wolves was with him and my mother. We parked half-hazard in the Animal Clinic parking lot and ran inside. The twins were laying on those steel tables beside each other and Deaton was standing between them with a stoic look on his face.

"What's wrong? Why aren't they healing?" Lydia was borderline hysterical.

"I can't do anything more, they have to start healing themselves," Deaton, otherwise known as the walking fortune cookie, told Lydia. "I can, however, help them along a bit."

He then placed a mask over each of their faces and turned on the oxygen machine. Then he started getting needles full of some liquid that I was too scared to ask about. Lydia seemed to feel the same way because she slid her hand down and laced our fingers together. Cora grabbed my wrist and I went the extra step and grabbed her hand. She seemed to be a little relieved because she gave it a small squeeze.

After about ten minutes, the twins began to stir. Lydia rushed over to Aiden and took his hand in hers. I rolled my eyes and made my way over to Ethan, rubbing up and down his arm soothingly. As soon as his eyes opened, he tensed, but when he realized I was going to hurt him he relaxed.

"You're okay, as long as you don't hurt me I won't hurt you," I told him. Then quieter I said, "I remember that you came and got us."

"I knew," Aiden said, drawing my attention over to him and Lydia.

"What are you talking about?" Lydia asked, I could heard the unadulterated relief in her voice. "I think you've gone crazy."

"I know that you liked me," he replied smugly, making Ethan and me laugh.

Seeing how in love they both were, I excused myself from Ethan. I pulled out my phone and dialed Stiles' number, praying that he answered and that he was okay.

"Scar?" he answered.

I felt tears prick my eyes when I heard that he was okay. "Stiles, oh my gosh, I'm so happy to hear you voice. Are you okay? Is everyone else okay?"

"Hey, take a breath and calm down, okay? We're all okay, even your mom, it's okay. Are you alright?" he asked, I could hear the happiness in his voice. "I was so afraid when you left with Lydia earlier."

I laughed and wiped the tears off of my face, "Yeah, we're okay. We're too stubborn to be killed, you should know that by now."

"Do you think that you could come get us?" Stiles asked.

"Of course I can, I'll be right there," I said. Then I realized that I had no idea where they are, "Uhm, I don't know where you are, actually."

"Just go where you're thinking, you'll find us. I know you after all," he replied. "Oh, and bring a ladder."

I was too emotionally drained to even ask why he needed one. "Okay, I'll be there soon."

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><p>I won't even begin to explain how Lydia and I ended up finding the Nemeton, but let's just say Scott was involved. I was chewing my nails to bits when my mom finally came out. I ran at her and held onto her so tightly that I never wanted to let go. She was holding me just as tightly with one of her hands clutching the back of my head and the other holding me close to her.<p>

"You're head's bleeding," she forced out, I could feel her body shaking. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just had a run in with a crazy woman," I said, pulling away and looking her up and down. "Are you okay? Are you hurt or bleeding or anything?"

She moved her hands to cup my face and made me hold her gaze. "I'm fine, my sweet girl. Go find Stiles, he was going completely crazy over the thought of you being away from him."

I kissed her forehead and whispered, "I love you."

I looked around but couldn't find Stiles. I felt my heart start pounding harshly in my chest as I started to freak out. Then I felt arms wrap around me and relaxed. I turned around and wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. I ended up knocking us onto the ground, but I stayed on his lap.

I pulled away from him enough to kiss him. I pressed kisses all over his face, every inch of skin I could get to was covered in kisses until I stopped and rested my forehead against his. I opened my eyes and saw a couple of cuts on his forehead and felt rage course through me.

"What did that bitch do to you?!" I asked, away and taking a better look at his head.

"She didn't do that, I was in a car accident because I was too worried about you to watch the road. I'm fine," he said dismissively before taking my cheeks in his hands. "But I do want to kiss you some more."

I grinned and pushed myself forward so our lips were pressed together again.

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><p><strong>For those of you that are still reading, thank you to the moon and back for not giving up on this story. It means a lot to me that you've stuck by me.<strong>


	16. Chapter 16

**This is the final chapter of this story, my babies. I want to thank each and every one of you that have followed, favorited, and reviewed this story. You're the reason that I write things, and you're the reason that the story keeps flowing. **

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><p>That night I had the worst struggle in the world. I wanted to stay attached to Stiles, but I didn't want to let my mom out of my sight and he didn't want to let his dad out of his. We settled for going to our own houses and staying on the phone with each other the entire night.<p>

"It has to be like four in the morning," I whispered through a thick yawn.

I was currently lying in between Scott and my mother in her bed while Isaac laid in the floor just beside her. Let's just say, we weren't letting her out of our sight any time soon. Stiles and I were both dead tired, but we wanted to talk to each other too much to hang up. I'd gotten a maybe three hours of sleep total.

"It's actually almost six," he replied through a yawn. "What time do you usually get up?"

My mom's alarm started blaring and all four of us in the room let out a groan. "Right now, I'll see you at seven."

"Mhmm," he replied before I heard him hang up his phone.

"You two are seriously the most annoying thing in the world. You kept me up most of the night with your gross pillow-talk," Isaac complained as we brushed our teeth.

"Most of the night we were just breathing because we were sleeping. You're stupid," I said, bumping him with my hip. "Oh yeah, way to hold the freakin' earth up with your super-wolfy-strength and keeping it from smushing my mom. I'm impressed and proud."

"Shut up and go get ready," he said, but I saw the pink coloring his cheeks. "And thank you, for everything."

I knew that meant for letting him stay here and for being a sister to him. I seriously treated him just like I treated Scott. Thinking that, I turned around and stood on my tiptoes to hug him around his neck. He put his toothbrush down and hugged my waist just as tight, lifting me a little in the process.

"I'm really glad that I've got two brothers to look out for me," I whispered against his chest, but I knew that he heard me.

"I've always wanted a family that cared about me, and I'm really glad that I finally found it," he whispered thickly to me. "Thank you more than you'll ever know."

"Stop it! You're going to make me cry before I go to work," mom said, making us break apart.

I pulled my head away from Isaac's chest to see her standing behind us with Scott's arm around her. Needless to say, a group hug ensued with a little bit of crying. We finally broke apart and went to finish getting ready.

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><p>Isaac was riding to school with Allison this morning, I was positive there was something going on there but whatevs, and I was riding with Stiles while Scott drove his dirt bike. I was on edge the entire ride until I couldn't hold in my questions any longer.<p>

"Pull over," I stated, crossing my arms and turning my body to face his. "I can't stand this. I want to know what's going on with us before I fall for you and get my heart broken when you're not as invested as I am."

"Scar, the last thing I ever want to do is break your heart," he told me after he'd pulled over to the curb. "I want to be with you; I'm as invested as a person can be, trust me."

I closed my eyes and took a breath before opening them back up. Stiles had moved from behind the wheel to sitting directly beside of me. I took another calming breath before pushing forward and kissing him again. This time there wasn't a bubble of hysteria spurring me on, nothing that was going to interrupt us, it was just us on our own time.

I had a hand on his chest and the other on his shoulders as his held my neck delicately. It wasn't rushed and sloppy like the last one, it was just gentle and timid. It was like we were trying to figure each other out for the first time.

When we finally pulled away, I felt airy and light from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I actually giggled and bit my bottom lip from the euphoria filling me up. I looked up at Stiles and saw that he looked just as happy as I did.

That's what was missing from our relationship before. Neither of us looked genuinely happy after we'd kissed the first two times. The first time was relief and awe, and the second one was out of desperation. This time we could feel however we wanted.

"You make me happy and I like it," I told him, staying close to him even after we'd started driving again. "I think I want to be your girlfriend."

He swerved a little on the road and caused me to laugh at how dorky he was. "Are you serious? You want to be _my_ girlfriend? Have you ever met me?"

"Yep," I replied before kissing the side of his head. "I love you and your dorky personality."

He was literally beaming with pride by the time we pulled into the school parking lot. We walked inside with our hands swinging happily between us. He opened the door for me and wrapped his arm around me, pressing a kiss to the crown of my head.

"So does this mean that you guys are official now?" Scott asked when he saw how intimately we were pressed together.

He looked over at me and waited for me to answer him. "Yeah, we're completely officially boyfriend and girlfriend."

"It seems like you're not the only ones," he said, his eyes going over to the staircase across the hall from us.

Allison and Isaac were walking down it together, laughing and gazing at one another. I knew it was tearing Scott apart watching them like that so I stepped out of Stiles' grasp and wrapped my arm around his waist.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered in his ear. "It's sucky that it has to be like that for you guys."

I seriously meant that. He loved Allison more than I've ever seen anyone love anyone before. I hoped that Stiles and I loved each other half as much as they did one day. I could tell by the look in Scott's eyes that he was still just as in love with her as he was when he first met her. I couldn't even begin to think of words to comfort him.

"In other news, there's another new couple brewing," Stiles said, pointing over to Lydia's locker after a long silence.

Lydia and Aiden were leaning against it, Aiden looking like he was talking while Lydia ignored him. I knew the redhead enough to know that she was absolutely eating up all of his attention. I loved her, but she was a bit self-absorbed sometimes. To be honest, I think she had every right to be like that after what Jackson did to her last year.

"The best thing that's came out of this is I realized how many people I have in my pack," Scott said as we all walked to our lockers together. "Plus my best friend and my sister are finally together! You've been into each other ever since I can remember."

I rolled my eyes at him and saw Lily standing on the other side of the hallway, gazing over at us. I knew that I needed to go talk to her. I'd done nothing but freeze her out for since the Darach thing happened. I needed to go smooth everything over with us, or at least try.

"I've got to go fix something," I said, kissing Stiles quickly before making my way over to her. "I'll talk to you in class."

I walked over to Lily and saw her quickly look into her locker instead of at me. I knew how stubborn she could be so I should give her some juicy gossip before I tried to apologize.

"Stiles and I are official," I told her, leaning towards her a little as I spoke.

"That's awesome, but I'm still not talking to you," she said, still not looking at me.

"I'm a shit best friend, and I know that! I want to tell you everything that's happened so far and why I've been so distant. I know there's nothing that I can say or do to undo it, but I want to try," I said, laying everything out for her. "You deserve an amazing best friend, and I'm definitely not that. All I know is that I need you to keep me sane."

"I understand that things are complicated for you right now, Scarlet. I'm your best friend, I can help you though all of it if you'd let me," she said, turning around to face me. "Don't you remember how you felt when Stiles and Scott tried to push you out of the loop because they were afraid you'd get hurt? You threw the bitch-fit to end all bitch-fits."

I knew she was right, I did throw a fit. It was a bad feeling to feel like your friends didn't want you in their lives. I had to think of a way to make things better between us fast, I needed her.

"Oh, guess who's on the rise of coupledom?" I said, trying to act like nothing had happened and that we were still best friends. When she raised her brows, I kept going, "Isaac and Allison."

I knew that would make her start talking to me. "You're kidding?! What does Scott think about that? Doesn't Isaac live with you guys now? Isn't that against the, like, _pack code_ or something."

"I know! That's what I thought, I'm pretty sure it's against the bro code," I exclaimed as we walked down the hallway together.

"Yeah, okay, I want to know details about you and your new boothang," she said, linking our arms. "I want to know if he's as good a kisser as you always said he would be."

"Uhm, we actually kissed twice before we were a thing. They were really weird situations, but we kissed a bunch," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "We became official this morning in his Jeep. He's an _amazing_ kisser!"

And just like that, she and I were best friends again. That's why I loved Lilian Kaitlyn Trent so much, she understood that sometimes my life was really complicated in ways that I couldn't put into words. She was very forgiving and I needed that.

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><p>"So, I think Aiden and I are a thing now. What does that say about me?" Lydia sighed as we sat down for lunch.<p>

"I think it means that you're finally letting yourself care about someone after Jackson destroyed you. I'm insanely proud of you letting your walls down for someone," I told her, holding her hands in mine. "You're a strong woman who deserves nothing but everything she wants in live. If Aiden is what you want, then Aiden is what you're going to get."

She hugged me tightly across the table and I felt her let out a deep breath. When she let me go, I sensed someone else walking up to our lunch table. Stiles sat down beside me and instantly took my hand in his, rubbing his thumbs absentmindedly over my knuckles. Scott was sitting on my other side with Allison, Isaac, Lydia, and Aiden across from us. Danny made his way over and sat with Ethan and Lily on either side of him.

I guess our situation wasn't exactly ideal, but it was about as good as it could get. I had friends that I would die for and I knew would die for me and a mother who was safely at work. I knew better than to get used to this, but I tried my hardest to not let that ruin it.

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><p><strong>A couple of people hinted around for me to do 3B... I might do it, but I'm not making any promises because my senior year is winding down and I don't know how much free time I'm going to have. I want to write it, but I don't really know yet. Keep an eye out for it, and maybe follow me so you can get an update if I actually <strong>**DO write it. **

**Yeah, that was really long. Thank you again for all of your support, I love you all.**

**-Brooke**


	17. IMPORTANT SEQUEL NEWS

I've had a ton of reviews asking me to make a sequel to _Aeonian_ for 3b. I have started on it and posted the first chapter, so if you're interested in it, go read it. I have the link on my profile so go check it out and tell me what you think.


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